Marine Research

Nottingham Old Angel

September 4 1999

This one is going to test me. Not on about just the heat, though it is still stiffing. No, I mean I have this thing that if you write a zine or whatever, you should be able to write a review of any gig. Don't hold with this bollocks of "Oh, I'm not going to review this tonight", or just hiding at the bar and doing a review from there based on 2 minutes of music. Nope, you should be able to do it, because every gig should give you something to think about and write about.

Having said that, things don't look promising. Me neanderthal rock man. Woargh. Marine Research are rather delicate and twee. Just to set the record straight. Not a good match. "They don't rock baby" and so yeah well um...

There's twin female vocals going on. Normally I like female vocals, but these need some oomph for me. The whole thing made me think of The Beautiful South, which is something I try not to do if possible. But there's another reasonable sized crowd in, and they seem to appreciate and understand. Some are even trying to dance, which draws appreciation from the band given the heat. They offer to share some cake to the crowd, which is nice. However, any band that tries to over analyse music looses point. Especially when you say that "indie music is like a Venn diagram" and then try to explain it. Noooooo. Don't you know that over analytical bollocks is the domain of journalists or crap reviewers. That's what we do badly. And there, I manage to at the last moment get something from the gig to write about. Phew, got close to proving myself to be stupid once more there. Rescued from the edge.