Careless

Pocket Venus can’t write a simple song, they only write epics – perhaps their debut album could be called ‘Greatest Hits’ as the band are going to have a problem when it comes to writing those ‘album filler’ tracks that a lot of releases have nowadays.

The new song Why (they’ve always been crap at titles) is testament to the song writing mastery this band possess. Fresh out of the rehearsal hideaway, the song makes its debut to an eager & highly responsive Manchester audience. I’ve seen this band enlighten, spit at, snarl, intimidate & assault their audiences; tonight they decided to chill & were the better for it (tonight anyway). That power was still there battering the ear drums but the unpredictable Chris Yates was totally chilled out on stage & the crowd warmed to that, perhaps the boisterous side had already been given its worth from the supporting Careless. Having travelled all the way from Southampton it was evident they’d had a long time to plan out the staged theatrics, which was a pity really cos if you took the falsehoods away you’ve a half-decent band. Although some of their songs sounded so close to Schafer’s I thought Marcus Warner could do with giving his lawyers a call.
’Hey you crowd kick ass.’ That line wore a little thin after the 5th mention & the oh so crazy bassist, who tried really hard, had brought a chair on stage to throw at the crowd after he was introduced as the ‘mad bassist’, ‘sad’ would’ve been a closer description. The guitarist, Spider was the real star of the show, with the right moves & looks & didn’t need to try too hard, shame about the other guitarist who looked like their mate they felt sorry for & let him join the band.
The Night & Day owner wouldn’t let the bands soundcheck due to the screening of the European Cup Semi-final, I did have to contain my delight at the Bayern side scoring 2 goals at Old Trafford & the added bonus of Gary Neville being stretchered off. Of course, also being in the heart of enemy territory to watch it all made it even sweeter & I bit my lip to look sympathetically at the gutted Yates (ha-ha).
Barring any further assassination attempts Pocket Venus now have a lot of gigs & summer festivals to look forward to. With new set of Sell Your Friends, Get Away, Through Your Day, Why, Fall Away, Like You, How High their growing army of admirers also have a lot of Pocket Venus to look forward to.