poppedmusic

United Liverpool

12th October Maguires, Liverpool

Words: Sean Regan

Maguires has become a bit of an institution over the last few years, thanks to its effortlessly kitsch charm and DIY ethos to putting on gigs. This is one of the only venues you’ll find decked out with WWF posters while Andrew WK blares out on the playlist and, best of all, not a Pabst Blue Ribbon in sight. The band room is an equally no nonsense affair without even a stage to separate the punters from their up and coming heroes.

Glaswegian Alt Rock band United Fruit already have a debut LP Fault Lines under their belt along with radio airplay and a few tasty support and festival slots over the last few years. Their latest single “Open Your Eyes” has them back on the road again for a UK tour, keeping up the momentum and helping them gain more fans as they make the cross over to the mainstream public’s conciousness. In a slightly unusual move, United Fruit were to be supported by a whopping 4 bands so it was a good opportunity to check out some new Liverpool talent.

The Floormen started the night with a laidback jam set with a heavy psychedelic feel. The bass and drum grooves were nicely complemented by the reverb-drenched guitar and sparse vocals which gave us a pleasing sound. Next were The Mighty Ibex who took the show in a heavier direction as they announced they would be providing us with “Live Angry Music”. They then went through a set crammed with messed up time signatures and tempo changes. Their sludgey doom laden sound was quite a contrast to the previous band and would have appealed to any Tool fans in the audience. Again the show took a 180 degree turn as Lowlanders came on to give us a pop punk set, the highlight being a cover of Roxanne which had the best response from the audience so far that night. All three of these bands had plenty of good ideas, but still need a bit of time to develop. Maybe ones to keep an eye out for in the future if you like their styles of music.

Elmo and the Styx, however, would definitely be classed as a band to go see now. They have somehow managed to combine punk and prog into something you’d actually want to go and listen to thanks to their high energy live set and some very catchy choruses. With bags of charisma the band had the audience eating out of the palms of their hands, even managing to get the crowd to fix their banner up onto the wall for them while they tore through their set. An excellent way to get everyone warmed up for what was to come.

At last it was time for United Fruit to take to the beer soaked carpet. They let loose with a take no prisoners approach, smashing through an extremely high tempo set and barely pausing except to swap out instruments. The two guitarists’ sounds were a contrasting blend of fuzzed out lead and a more heavily delayed sound from singer Iskander Stuart, backed up by an intimidatingly tight rhythm section. Despite the pace of the songs, the band were extremely focused and exuded a sense of controlled chaos over the heavy sounds they were making (although I’m still not sure how Dean Inglis’ arms didn’t fall off from the never ending snare rolls of “Go Away, Don’t Leave Me Alone”). United Fruit’s reputation for their live show is definitely one they deserve and it was great to see a band like this up close in the more intimate settings of Maguires – hopefully they’ll be back again soon.