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Live Review
by SashaS
8-3-2002
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| A's Jason Perry |
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Live: A
Astoria, London
Thursday, March 7, 2002
A bring their newly defined UK-nu metal to impress much and many more
A rocking combo hailing from Suffolk, England is named like a lame little boy-group but playing like a middle-of-nowhere-USA metallers… Something’s changed: ever since ‘How Ace Are Buildings’ (1997) A used to ply their Brit-rockness but nothing was much moving. A dropped their third album ‘Hi-Fi Serious’, recently and it is worth indulging in.
Overhauling their musical expression A arrived at a much modern sound and produced a wonderful record in ‘Hi-Fi Serious’. There is serious rocking of the current single ‘Nothing’, punkdom on ‘Something’s Going On’ and even moments of progressiveness… It’s like Tool-meets-Korn.
On the new disc we find a song entitled ‘Sturbucks’, there is another one about the 9/11 tragedy, ‘Going Down’; the California vista is contained within ‘Pacific Ocean Blue’, ‘The Springs’ are about Frank Sinatra’s favourite place, Palm Springs. Yes, the band has become this versatile in Yank-isms but manage to maintain some British rawness about it.
Having upped the musical content, the show is as vital… There is a lot of energy surging from the band that is appreciated and reflected back by the crowd: from the moment A step onstage, to a deafening ovation, no member stands still for an instant. Guitarist Mark Chapman fires riffs like he is targeting the Taliban, bassist Dab Carter is a live-wire, the Perrys – drummer Adam and keysman Giles – are all limbs and fingers that leaves Jason to command attention in front with some dance moves that cry for a choreographer.
It is dynamic, heaving, it is hot and sweaty in this ‘den of sin’. This is rock, after all, and A don’t let you forget it after an early announcement of intent: “We are here to rock!” New songs, ‘Shut Yer Face’, ‘Took It Away’ and ‘The Distance’ merge with faves ‘Old Folks’ and ‘I Love Lake Tahoe’ to create an enormous sonic waterfall the size of Niagara. Confident, tight and hungry, they smell fame a guitar-neck away, go for a kill and depart with a trophy.
The only nagging worry was that, although very impressive in this guise, A might have missed the wagon after the explosion of The Strokes and The White Stripes’ kind… But no, defo nope on this display of power.
SashaS
8-3-2002
A’s album ’Hi-Fi Serious’ is out now on London/WEA
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