The Vines are touted as the ‘next-big-thing’ but our reviewer is troubled

A colleague leaves 20 minutes into the set with his thumbs firmly pointing to the floorboards. Moi, I stay to the end of a 45-minute set of The Vines’ first headlining show to see what develops in the case of the latest buzz-band in London’s circles. Well, the hype might be doing its curiosity-tickling duty but the actuality is – confusion. Onstage, among the stalls, amidst the bar-hugging ‘fans’…

The Australian band presents a sonic picture that is so wide-ranging that one experiences true space-sickness. They kick in with a song that starts as a mutated country number before turning into a rocker; later on elements of grunge, power (rock) ballads, experimental noises, West Coast-ness, jamming, punk noises (at one moment I could swear they were playing ‘Pretty Vacant’ but it was its twin) find place in their repertoire… Diversity is much appreciated and undervalued quality these days but this is – creative schizophrenia.

Wait, the most unusual thing about the band’s expression is Craig Nicholls’s vocal: it is an instrument he uses in the most peculiar manner of ever-so-often turning on this falsetto before doing some more voice-acrobatics. (Someone suggested Stevie Nicks but that is a cruel comparison.) It distinguishes the band but often it appears to be there for effect rather than any dramatic underlining… Also, there appeared to be some pish-taking at the beginning of the show…

That turned out to be a miss-impression of the singer’s nerves: Nicholls spends the evening vibing real discomfort from the stage and his (rare) chatter is mumbled or spoken off-mic. The nearby standing Aussie kept on asking, “What did he say?” but no help from me, I can’t speak alien dialects. Songwise, single ‘Highly Evolved’ states its intent in about 90 seconds and its corpo-punkness appeal might land it into Top 30. But then, songs like ‘Mary Jane’ feel like lasting a couple of… hours.

The Vines (named in honour of Nicholls father’s combo The Vynes) appear to have exited garage evolution before completion. Or, perhaps, they played too many times in über-pubs (the usual gigging places in Oz-land) where ‘4X’ lowers standards… In any case, The Vines leave tokers in total state of paranoia, claims Dashiel, my imaginary-friend.