The Airborne Toxic Event - Fibbers - 2/11/08.

Last Sunday saw Fibbers play host to Los Angeles’ rock indie band The Airborne Toxic Event, whose punk/Britpop-influenced music more than lived up to the strange promise of their name.

With a US single and album released to critical praise as high as “the best CD of 2008”, the five-piece evidently consider their home reputation secured and are looking for a new challenge. Hence their “30 shows in 30 days” UK tour, as they attempt to “crack Britain” before the release here in January of a different single from the now-extended eponymous album.

The band are eager to stress their Los Feliz district roots, with it’s, “separate rock scene from the traditional LA Sunset Strip stuff”, where they all played separately before the five of them “just kinda gelled”.

Being big Britpop fans – shown by stints supporting bands like The Fratellis, Franz Ferdinand and The Kaiser Chiefs – coming to the UK is not such a leap of faith for them as for bands crossing the pond in the opposite direction. Their music’s history is here, with The Clash and Pulp easily audible in many a song.

The traditional guitar-band set-up is given a couple of innovative twists in Airborne’s line-up, with the radiant Anna Bulbrook simply picking up where Candida Doyle left off. Meanwhile, Russell Brand-lookalike bassist Noah Harmon unexpectedly echoed Jimmy Page with his bowed technique, and when in synergy with the entranced Bulbrook’s viola and keys, this created the tantalising illusion of a full orchestra sound onstage.

The spotlight however was filled by front man, founder and lyricist Mikel Jollett, curiously the spitting image of another (more musical) British celebrity, Robbie Williams. Though blessed, like his bandmates, with more instrumental talent than his doppelgänger, it was Jollett’s mercurial voice that proved a constant attraction, shining out over the smooth texture of the calmer songs and cutting through the guitar-based noise of the punkier tracks.

Though generally comparable with the vocal stylings of Franz Ferdinand and the Editors, Jollett’s sound defies simple classification, varying hugely with the band’s from song to song. Sometimes reminiscent of Snow Patrol’s Gary Lightbody, as for the modern ballad numbers the Northern Irelanders pioneered, elsewhere he even evoked Joe Strummer, notably in the tighter, angrier “Does This Mean You’re Moving On?”

It is this range of styles that marks the band out as special, making it fitting that their final number, “Innocence”, with its slow, echoey intro building to a powerful kick-in, brought so well to mind Jeff Buckley’s “Eternal Life”. It can only be hoped that Airborne’s mastery of diverse, guitar-fuelled, intellectual indie brings them half as much success as it did the nineties youth idol.

And as to their bizarre name? Well, according to Jollett, “My parents were hippies.” What more do you need to know?

The Airborne Toxic Event will play at Rocket in Leeds on 16th November and Sheffield University on 26th. Their self-titled UK album is released on 18th January 2009, with the single “Gasoline” currently on pre-sale. For more information see their myspace or homepage.

Add Comment

You must log in to submit a comment.