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All set to explode into the frontal lobes of the mainstream consciousness when they play with The Enemy as main support act on their impending spring UK tour, indie-rockers The Displacements are a band in the ascendancy. Still though, this week they were playing the relatively diminutive York Junction venue, and sometimes you have to pick up new fans a handful at a time…
For this reviewer at least, there is an ever growing temptation, born-out of the current crop of, for the most part homogenous, mediocre and often just downright bad indie bands, to to give the latest ‘The X’ only the smallest window to impress before giving up, going home and just listening to some Interpol instead. That in mind, I was pleasantly surprised to find myself nodding and toe-tapping along to, amongst other songs, the barn-storming anthem 'Lazy Bones' during Wednesday night’s gig.
The band’s sound is a well-calibrated, mainstream-friendly brand of indie rock that is rich with soaring, well-executed harmonies that most bands fail to reproduce live. Song style is varied enough, from straight-laced rock (Lazy Bones) to catchy quasi-surf-folk (Down and Out). In terms of reference points, their combination of melodic vocals with a big, energetic sound places them somewhere in between a beefed up, ballsier Magic Numbers and a slightly watered down Buzzcocks (don’t think Ever Fallen in Love though). At times they’re almost reminiscent of a less self-aggrandizing, indie-Oasis.
Anyway, they’re pretty good, but there’s no need to get carried away…they’re a cut above most of their underwhelming contemporaries within the indie genre, not least the overrated Enemy who they’ll be supporting come march - but its unlikely you’ll be affected enough to get Displacements tattooed across your heart any time soon.
All in all though, The Displacements are a quality act that are certainly worth going to see for any fan of indie rock with a genuine live presence and slightly intangible quality to their sound that gets you nodding along without realising it, and that really, is the ball-game.
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