It was raining when I sauntered up to the box office at Shepherd’s Bush Empire on April 30, 3008. Trying hard not to look like an idiot, I managed to pick up my tickets and sneak into line without standing out too much. The crowd and the venue had a strange familiarity…but with British accents. I was mostly surrounded by teenage girls save several groups of teenage guys laughing off their awkwardness. Unlike sunny California, however, many of the scenesters were trying to fit under the very small eves of the venue or the few umbrellas to avoid the rain. It’s London. You’d think they’d be used to think. Before long security let us in and I found myself in this round, tall, classic-style building which reminded me of a mix between the Avalon and the Wiltern. While some kids were quick to grab the barricade, others formed circles like middle school kids at recess—it seemed like a lot of them knew each other.
I got up the nerve to ask two girls standing next to me – they were probably about 16 or 17 and seemed pretty excited for the show to start – whether Air Traffic was famous. It probably sounded like an idiotic question and I would have liked to pick their brain about their knowledge of the band, but I thought that too much. They told me that they weren’t too famous but some people knew of them. I asked if they had ever seen them before and they responded negatively.
After much anticipation, these guys I had seen early trying to back their van out of the driveway took the stage. They’re apparently a band called Wall Birds (although they never once mentioned it during their set and I only found out by snagging a list from security). This anonymity may have been to their advantage though. The bassist played rhythm like it was a stand up creating a sort of two-step beat and this could have made the style interesting, but the heavy strum of the acoustic guitar by the leads and the overuse of cymbals by the drummer—not to mention the country accent the lead seemed to adopt while singing—created this really weird mesh of genres. Or maybe not so much a mesh of genres as an identity crisis.
They were starving for attention and drowning in their unoriginality. Their sound was very Johnny Cash meets Murder by Death with a little Matt Nathanson. Their energy was exciting and they were good at keeping the crowd excited and dancing, but their certain cockiness was not backed up by anything but super Brit rock costumes.
And here is something else I don’t get—this new obsession with hair band stage antics, especially when really inappropriate. The lead decided that in this genre, playing an acoustic guitar, it would be a good idea to get on his knees and full on rock out. More than once. Can this be explained? I don’t think any of it can.
Not to mention there was an entire problem with the lead promising his hat to the person that danced the most and then upon finishing the set and being chanted on to pass the hat, he muttered “fuck off” and left the stage. He then came back, angry but faking a smile, and instead of passing it to one of the girls in front who had obviously been dancing the most, he threw it to the back of the venue. I don’t think this band gained too many fans that night. So maybe it’s good that no one knew their name.
I’m pretty sure that these bands had entirely too long to set up. There were 30 minute set breaks! Who needs 30 minutes! Anyway, the next band finally took the stage at 8:30.
This was Team Water Polo. Unfortunately, they’re probably exactly how their name makes them sound. It went from terrible to bad, which I suppose is technically an improvement. Their set up was a guitar, a bass, drums, and a turn table. The turn table was an interesting addition… creative at the very least. Also, off in the shadows was an older sneaky man and it looked like he was mixing, but not in the spotlight? That looked a little shady to me.
Their music was filled with unnecessary and butchering falsettos. Every once in a while lead vocal would turn into the guy from The Darkness. And then the bassist and the guy on the tables filled the intervals with falsetto “ooo”s and “aahh”s which just did not work. Not only did they seem completely awkward, but sometimes the phrases would end completely whiny and off key. If I wanted to hear a high school choir I would not have come to a venue. Their whole get up seemed like a bad parody of bad 80s pop with Ramones gang shouts.
At the end of the set, I was a little worried about what was to come. I had heard Air Traffic on their Myspace but new absolutely nothing about them before I bought these tickets. I was so completely and utterly aurally satisfied and felt like the opening bands had been the test to be able to enjoy the pleasure of being in the presence of Air Traffic. They were completely brilliant.
The lead switched back and forth from guitar to piano where instead of a bench he used an amp case to sit on. Not only did he look passionate about what he was doing, but everything about the music was passionate. The percussions created a heavy beat which amped the already excited room and got everyone dancing. The music was safe enough to be familiar but experimental enough to be interesting. It was a complete fuse of so many genres with each song unique and defined from every other. The vocals were pitch perfect and smooth and sincere.
The band ended the set with a minor key ballad which was beautiful and heart-wrenchingly so followed by Suffragette City (which most of these teens probably knew from Guitar Hero). They sounded overall like Coldplay meets Nightmare of You and The Killers. The crowd loved it and the venue was jam packed by the time they finished. I guess Air Traffic is more famous than those girls thought. And they’re way more talented than I expected.
