Reviews
Mos Eisley/The Capes/The Get-Outs
02 October 2003
There’s a lot at stake tonight. This being Freshers’ Pub Crawl night, Moles is packed out with new faces – and potential recruits. Get it right and those students will keep coming back every week: get it wrong and a whole new generation of gig-goers will be lost. The pressure is on. So it’s just as well that tonight’s Purr-sponsored line-up is once again extremely strong. Bristol trio The Get-Outs get things started, firing off no-frills scatter-gun riffs in a suitably punk-rock manner. Having recently changed their name (they used to be called Airborn), it seems the fresh start has given them a new sense of purpose – we look forward to seeing more of them. Next up are London five-piece The Capes, who temper their full-on sound with Beach Boys-style harmonies and classic-sounding melodies. It’s an approach that’s already seen them pick up some high-profile fans: Radio 1’s Steve Lamacq recently featured them in his ‘New Favourite Band’ slot, and their debut single earned an enthusiastic review from NME. But whereas most write-ups to date have focused on the sunnier elements of the band’s sound, they’ve actually got a pretty fierce edge when they play live – one song even reminds us of lo-fi nearly-men Uresei Yatsura. Either way, they’re a great band: look out for their current single ‘Regional Heats’ (Outafocus Records). The highlight of the night, though, has to be Newcastle’s Mos Eisley. Seemingly equipped only with bargain basement practice amps, they nonetheless manage to work up a pretty devastating racket. They’re so good, in fact, we can’t quite believe they’re not signed to a major label (and yet a lame-ass act like The Thrills can get signed to Virgin … go figure). You can’t help thinking that, if only they were American, they’d be huge. Because what they do isn’t so far removed from a band like Blink 182, only better – it’s basically simple, upbeat, major key punk with awesome tunes. Oh, and their power pop cover of Bruce Springsteen’s I’m On Fire has to be heard to be believed. Three cool new bands, then – and a wicked night’s entertainment to boot. Looks like Moles just won over those Freshers…
Luke Lewis