Royal Bangs // Norwich Arts Centre - 11.04.10
Twee Off, in their usual tradition of hitting the nail on the head of giving Norwich a selection of up and coming noisy bands, gave us Royal Bangs this month. Support came from Men, a Norwich trio of, er, men, who despite being unsigned and unreleased have had a nice article about them in the NME recently. Drummer and singer Carl is clearly the star of Men, with his witticisms and confident audience rapport, which provides almost half of the enjoyment I got from their short set. Musically it’s punky, fast and loud..the only downside is it’s impossible to hear the lyrics. I really enjoyed how tight they were and think they are definitely one to watch.
Royal Bangs is composed of Chris, Ryan and Sam, all from Knoxville Tennessee, y'all. They released their debut LP We Breed Champions in 2008 and then Let It Beep last year. Compared to MGMT, Pavement and LCD Soundsystem amongst others, they don’t really sound like any of these bands. To me they are more like a rock Grandaddy. Certainly Ryan, who playes keyboard and sings sounds very Grandaddy in his vocal style. With the addition of a much rockier background sound, this turns this band into something very special. They clearly enjoy playing live and get into it which is always a fun thing to watch. A selection of songs from both albums are belted out, sometimes at a too-loud level, but with a short set again from The Bangs we all go away happy if a little deaf.
Lizz Page
