Haiti Fundraiser @ Norwich Playhouse – 24.01.10

by Dan Bleksley 

Four charged Neutrinos

Tonight at The Playhouse there is the raffle to end all raffles. Sure, there are Norwich City FC tickets, there are restaurant vouchers, there’s blah blah blah BLAH BLAH. No, there’s only one prize for the discerning altruistic gambler: a minute behind the Playhouse bar. The winner of this illustrious prize, however, squanders it by pouring a few drinks. I wanted that prize. I wanted to remove all those damned stuffed animals and other miscellaneous “quirky” articles from behind the bar and hurl them into the hungry crowd. Then I would have jammed a pint glass under an optic. Maybe also, if there was time, I’d have given some of the barmen a quick haircut. 

The raffle, of course though, was set up to raise money for the Haiti earthquake appeal, and it’s heart-warming to see how many local businesses donated prizes to this most worthy cause. The event was organised with considerable passion by local artist John Hirst with Bill Drummond, former KLF member. It’s odd, to say the least, to see this dance music pioneer, last seen by most of us spraying blanks from a machine gun into the 1992 BRIT Awards crowd, speaking with awkwardness and modesty on a makeshift stage, about how he’d bought an engraved iPod for his daughter’s Christmas present, only to find that her mother had bought her the same thing, and “uh… I think I said that it’s an iPod touch, but it’s not. It’s a… well this is the box. It’s this… a… an iPod… Nano? Well, it’s a prize in the raffle anyway.” Good one, Bill. 

Anyway. The music. 

The restrictions of performing acoustically would have diluted a lesser band. Not The Neutrinos. On stage, brazen in their unamplified nakedness, they are somehow more immediate, more theatrical. Singer Karen Reilly, with mesmerising moves and sinister grin, looks like some kind of evil cabaret singer from a Tim Burton animation. Musically they are more sophisticated too, with delicious vocal harmonies and melodic subtleties that are otherwise concealed in the fog of the art punk mayhem of their typical performances. ‘How do you love him?’ is especially fine. 

I’m sort of in love with Death of Death of Discotheque. I want to marry them and start a beautiful dysfunctional family. I love their dirty dirty sound, complete with distorted vocals, amelodic  guitar riffs and unspeakably gratifying deep synth tones, coupled with their spectacularly maladroit stage presence. Singer Jay Barsby, a rabid Jarvis Cocker, less commands the stage as obstructs it like a cartoon fight cloud, flailing around, dressed like a young child trying on costumes from the dressing up box. With defiantly unclassifiable shouty rock disco, they are a band that will simultaneously make you want to dance and throw up. 

Avante garde duo BK and Dad prove an odd choice of closing act. Don’t get me wrong, I think they’re incredible, but by halfway through the set, I find myself wondering if it’s only us musos at the front who are enjoying ourselves. Us and BK and Dad themselves that is. I can’t help but admire their less than formal approach to instrumentation; there is very little of the cymbals remaining, a plank of wood with bass guitar strings is used as a percussion instrument and an old shoelace is serving some mysterious function on the guitar headstock. Still, it’s definitely worth catching them when they’re playing a crowd that knows what to expect. 

The event raised an impressive amount of much needed cash for the Haiti earthquake appeal. If you consider yourself to be a responsible and compassionate member of the global community, and would like to assuage your middle-class guilt, you can still donate (as you well know) in a variety of ways. You’ll figure it out. 

// http://www.outlineonline.co.uk

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