115/250
Having been listening to Belong by The Pains of Being Pure At Heart on repeat for well over a month now (nicely alternated with Feel It Break by Austra, another on my must see list), I was as giddy as a pot of jumping glitter about seeing them playing live.
To the shame of my no-existing musical kudos, I hadn’t, till seeing The Pains… on the 10th June (a late upload I know), ever been to Sound Control. Not as a venue at least. I had obviously – with both formerly being in a band and going out with an obsessive guitarist – spent many, many, many (could write many, many more times and it still wouldn’t cover it) hours/days/weeks inside the building when it was the well-loved music shop.
Before it changed into a music venue, we would NEVER (caps signify everything) call into the centre of Manchester without either, A – going to try yet another guitar in one of those not really very sound proof booths that we were ”hmm… not sure about it yet” or B – going upstairs there to play with all the fantastic synths and keys till we got thoroughly pissed off looks from the staff (which would take about 15 minutes, but you could go in again when another member of staff was on who hadn’t seen you for about one week).
Anyway, trip down music shop nostalgia lane over with, I hadn’t yet been to Sound Control as a venue. In fact save for mega hugely famous band type gigs, since no longer being in our band (we were called King Kayak by the way, we weren’t mega hugely famous but man we were amazing… really we were) I have been through a forced live music detox. The hundreds of gigs, hideously late nights, extremely heavy gear loading (I mean band equipment here not blatant drug flouting) and even more hideously and extremely annoying promoters you end up dealing with, did, for a while at least, put a wet and manky old kitchen sponge over things, taking a little of the sparkle out of a scene I had so much loved being a part of.
So Friday night was a welcome return for me, with the comfort blanket of being somewhere both familiar, but nicely new (as in not associated with the usual promoters and band nights). Also I have heard good things about the quality of bands put on at Sound Control, so was hoping to avoid that often awkward line-up of music you have to suffer when going to see a headline act you like.
And I was certainly not disappointed. As a venue, Sound Control really benefits from having a downstairs room with a really friendly atmosphere, there’s a bar you can visit and a music volume that allows you to socialize, and an upstairs room (as in a whole floor) with a great stage, an actually really professional looking sound desk, and a lot of space for a decent crowd. And a decent crowd it was.
Even for the first band, Golden Glow, fronted my muso sceenster Pierre Hall, the room was getting pretty full. Golden Glow were a good starter band for the evening. Their lo-fi easy indie, swayed me into the vibe, they had a chilled but positive energy that I liked. Next up were Fanzine with a heavier and more 90s inspired sound. Aside from a few technical difficulties they did whisk a little more energy into the crowd in preparation for the main event.
By the time The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart were on stage, the room was full, the crowd seemed eager and the energy was high. I could tell as earlier I had had a good metre circle of space around me for decent dancing (all my dancing is uber decent) whereas by this point I was rubbing shoulders (literally) with a guy who wanted to make me dance with him, and I had little space to oppose. After quickly developing telepathic skills and urging my other good half back from the bar (I had originally, empty glass in hand, urged him there in the first place), we were all geared for The Pains…
They opened with the title track of their new same named album Belong. This is my fave track of that album, so it started on a high for me. The sound was balanced and great. It’s always a worry when seeing a band whose album you’ve played to smitherines, that the live sound cannot possibly live up to the memory in your head, but here it really did. They played a complete mix of their two albums and their Higher Than The Stars EP. Although The Pains.. are a totally understated, frowning through the fringe indie band, the crowd were mustering up a decent mosh. Judging from the varying intensity of mosh, the crowd was generally more familiar with the songs from their first album than their second.
Despite varying degrees of familiarity, the mosh grew, people got giddy and members of the crowd began to surf. Waves of energy rippled through the room over and over, each time spewing another eager bean of a person above the crowd’s heads. It’s good to know that I am not the only over-excitable one in the room.
The perfectly balanced water coloured vocal combo of Kip Berman and Peggy Wang were both delicate and strong above the mix. The synth/guitar just as level and the drum and bass added to that overall elegant evenness of outsider-looking-in-through-a-blue-and-rainy-window indie. It was good.
Belong, Young Adult Friction and The Body were all striking peaks through the set. The highlight however was surprisingly the encore. Possibly because by this point the crowd were all giddier than a bag of jumping beans and were not even nearly ready to finish when the band walked off stage, but when The Pains… came back and encored with The Contender people began to develop teary glows of excitement. A guy next to me (not the mithering dancing one) turned with enthusiasm and said “this band just really don’t know how fucking good they really are”. To a certain extend this is right.
The Pains… don’t have ego or attitude but a trueness to get up there and perform and deliver songs that obviously mean a lot to them. This, it was apparent to see, has quite a lovely effect on their crowd, who by the time the show finally (after another wee encore) came to an end, were all excitedly calm, and giddily chilled. A bit like The Pains’… music itself. I will definitely be going to Sound Control again. It’s an excellent venue with a great sound and a great atmosphere. And I will definitely see The Pains… if they play Manchester again. Remembering they’re New Yorkers, they certainly played Sound Control like it was a home coming gig. And damn fun it was too.
Today I listened to: Volta by Bjork
Today I read: More Dash Than Cash by Kate Hogg (Vogue, 1982 edition) kindly lent to me by the gorgeous Lady Behave
Kevin, my other good half, is ace. To say he’s obsessed about guitars is really, really underselling it. Last week I was driving home from a rather inspirational mornings natter with Tailor Bird. I’d gone to drop off a dress and left 3 hours later having discussed the whole world and its family. On my way home I was thinking how fab Kev is and decided to call by the music shop and get him this. I do totally irrational and non-sensible things like that. It’s the 60th Anniversary edition of the Fender Telecaster. I gave it him as a surprise. He had to close his eyes & everything. It was, without a shadow of a doubt, the best surprise ever & his response was truly worth every single penny non-sensically spent.
© Anne Louise Kershaw
