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First up were Toy Radar, and if you think you can judge the quality of a gig by extrapolating out from the opening night, this pair of local boys promised that the evening was going to be f***ing amazing. A band member had left not long before the gig so the remaining members were building songs from acoustic guitar and bass, with some inventive use of dual vocals. Although the tunes on their MySpace are fully electric with heavy drumming, the acoustic rendering allowed the song-writing to shine through, and it's hard to see how it would have been much better if a drummer had offered their services at the last minute. The bass player was wearing a Maccabees t-shirt, which certainly suggests a starting point here, but there is something harder-edged and grittier about Toy Radar that points to hidden depths. Is this the difference between growing out of an appearances-obsessed North London scene and a more substance based Northern indie movement? You can make your own mind up when they eventually find a new drummer.
Up second were The Debuts, ploughing an altogether different furrow. Vocalist Zandra Kleivens sounds like Edith Piaf bought up on Belle and Sebastian, and with an ice-cold delivery (think a Liam Gallagher stance devoid of all aggression) she was quite an intriguing figure. Fortunately the tunes had enough rhythmic intrigue and softly soothing melody to counterpoint the vocals. A rhythm section tighter than most of the audience's jeans (and that's saying something) meant that this was introspective indie that made you want to move - not something you can say for most bands trying to do something a little different.
Headliners Grammatics took to the stage with the weight of being the NME's 'Radar Pick of the Week' in the last week of October... well, if they did they certainly didn't show it, with a performance that was as self-assured as it was intricate. For every time singer Owen Brinley rolled a falsetto melody over a sparse rhythmic arrangement, there seemed to be a corresponding moment of colossal guitar sound.
The more delicate moments were formed around a cello and occasional samples, such as a set highlight that grew from a warm synth sample and, as the Brinley tapped his skeletal fingers on the neck of his guitar, ended up with a tight male/female vocal harmony, as human as the beginning had been artificial. Just as it seemed to have finished, the band turned and ripped out the biggest riff of the night, lasting just long enough to invigorate before the sample returned, slowly decaying as the song ended. "Thank you, that's more like it," commented bassist Rory O'Hara at the crowd's rightfully enthusiastic response, and I'm sure they were feeling the same thing.
In the NME 'Radar' feature Grammatics are feted as the potential "Blur to the Courteener's Oasis". Lets hope they can escape such early pigeonholing and explode out entirely on their own. This is the beginning of the new generation, a band that sound like they never even heard of the Libertines...
Fancy a last minute bonus? I do. Fortunately Situationists have popped up from Sheffield to provide just that. Peddling the kind of playful punk rock that is riddled with clever stops and group "whoah" and "hey"s alongside the world's most catchy melodies EVER, this was like finding a present under the fallen Christmas tree needles in the corner of the room the day after boxing day, only to find that it's a colouring book and a FULL SET of felt tips. How often do you hear "this song's for everyone in Communist China and Spain" as an introduction to a song? Even less often that you hear it followed by a clarification that it refers to those people "between 1936 and 1942", I'll wager. Either way, when it was followed by another slice of beatsy indie-pop then you don't have much time to register surprise at a brief history lesson.
And beatsy it was: a three pronged guitar assault powered by piledriving drums was forced out to take on anyone in Basement Bar who wasn't at least tapping their feet or nodding their head. As if this wasn't enough, the boys ripped out a spiky cover of Daft Punk's Digital Love, dropping like an indie dancefloor atom bomb and wiping out whatever resistance the crown had left to shaking a leg.
With this kind of varied, exciting lineup Basement Bar is really flexing its muscles and showing how, with careful planning and incredible intimacy, it can challenge for the best live venue in York.
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