Saturday 17 December 2001

Right-ho, first off, the support. I'm afraid I only caught the last number, so I'm completely unqualified to offer an opinion on this item on the musical menu. From the one tune I caught, he was in a fairly mellow mood, with a good melody sung with suitable screwed-up eyes inensity over nice ringing riffs which chugged along, building to a crescendo when his sleeve caught in the strings (worth it for the facial expression which resulted).

Onto the main platter.

I came down knowing there was a band on, then saw the gig list and remembered being intrigued by the name. Then when the band took the stage I was overcome with deja vu. Yes, a Lancaster supergroup was on offer, consisting of Dave from Strawberry Girl et al, Loz from Krill/DJ Hammered, Spacey from Road Map and that really good bassist who looks like a Blur escapee from one band or other, I'm mortified that I've forgotten which one. I braced myself for Strawberry Map, or maybe RoadGirl, and was pleasantly surprised.

Like the 80s arcade game from which they take their name, 3D Tanx were stripped down, angular, fairly simple and yet very refreshing, entertaining and edge-of-the-seaty. The Road Map influence was to the fore, with hypnotic rhythms based around one or two chords driving the songs onwards at velocity whilst the spirit of Mark E Smith (isn't he dead yet?) rambled over the top vocally. The rhythm section couldn't be faulted, with a couple of non 4/4 beats making a refreshing change in places and perfect tumbling baselines relieving the possibility of getting tired by tunes which didn't much shift from the chords of their key. The keyboard on top was kept simple, and added to the early Fall feel, and Dave's manic wrestling with his axe (even when his left hand didn't move) added to the energy coming straight at you. Although it did send him arse-over-tit in the opening chords of the first song as well.

Around me people were mentioning the Velvet Underground, and my best description of the whole affair would be 60s hippy punk, put through the mangle of 80s guitar drone, with the nice touch of rhythmic electronic noise loops underlining everything and segueing (seg-waying?) between songs. All this and a bit of equipment abuse to top it all off. Tops.

Noel The Teapot