Eighties Matchbox B-line Disaster and Electric Eel Shock @ the Zodiac 26/04/03
I issue an open challenge to anyone. Find me a Japanese band that I'd dislike. Electric Eel Shock have fallen at the challenge. Slightly apprehensive, having read only good reviews of the band, I was semi-expecting another product of hype. And was I wrong. The band sounded like a Japanese version of Green Day, and their limited English vocabulary only endeared us to them more. Who else could have lead a chant praising the wonders of e-mail? Ending with a chorus of 'Sex, Drugs and E-mail!' It is the way forward. What sets them apart from most Green Day soundalike bands is that they put so much into their performance, just the guitar solos from their lead singer is breathtaking enough. And what about the drummer dressed in nothing but a sock, signed copies were then available on sale at the merchandise stand, ending using his head as part of his instrument.
Eighties Matchbox B-line Disaster are a band that takes some getting used to. Like their fellow Brighton band British Sea Power, I didn't quite understand them the first time I saw time. Now it's starting to make sense. Take their lead singer Guy, he stares angrily at the audience for the whole set, but from his reactions it's difficult to tell if he's acting a part or if it's all serious. Their music sounds like the 60s surf songs, mutated in a very wrong way, but that's only to be expected from a band like theirs.