This is my gig review of The Airborne Toxic Event with White Belt Yellow Tag supporting them.  The gig took place at the Anson Rooms in Bristol on the 8^th November 2009.

New up and coming band, White Belt Yellow Tag, appeared to be well received by the small accumulating audience.  Not greatly known as yet, as a warm up band, seemed to be doing exactly as written on the tin.  People were nodding and toe tapping to the beats.  The drummer, Tom Bellamy, concentrated intently to his tight timing with similar beats associated with Doves.  Sweat pored from his head as he mightily hit those drums with those hands and muscled arms.   He seemed to keep his nerves under control as he bashed in rhythm with guitarist, Justin Lockery. The style here was similar to Editors although not as complex.  However, the affect did create an impact on their ‘loud/soft’ style.  This guitarist bashed those strings in time with those pounding drumbeats.  It looked as though he was driving at concrete as if in a chain gang.  This produced an explosive sound.  Craig Pilbin, vocals, guitar and keyboard,    diverted from one instrument to another.  His voice wasn’t strong enough, to hear much of the lyrics, but his guitar ability showed more complexity than his fellow band member. 

This three-piece band has much potential and could become the next White Lies should their songs gather momentum. 

The Airborne Toxic Event has been touring the last two years and this night’s performance was their 200^th this year.  This was their second time in Bristol – their first performance was at the Cooler with some dozen attendees, announced the lead singer.  This night the Anson Rooms were ¾ full, although not a sell out gig. 

If you are not acquainted with The Airborne Toxic Event and you like Arcade Fire, you may draw on comparisons here.  They are a five-piece band, featuring drummer, Daren Taylor, viola/backing vocals/keyboardist, Anna Bulbrook and bassist/double bass, Noah Harmon. Multi-taskers also include Steven Chen (guitar/keyboards) and Mikel Jollet (vocals/guitar/keyboards); all help provide a big orchestral sound. 

The audience cheered enthusiastically as the band come onto the stage.  A tight drumbeat echoed from its high platform, behind a large backdrop. This artwork depicted hundreds of people, possibly crowded at a festival, with their eyes blanked out. Below the drum kit Airborne presented their show with two large visual screens.  These showed scenes, amongst others, of traffic jams under streetlights, and fish net stocking tops being pulled up and down legs. This was quite an arty visual affect.

The band covered tracks from their debut album plus a couple teasers from their yet-to-be-released new album.  By what was heard, the style and sound appears similar quality to their debut. 

Melodic ‘Something New’ is about living in an area of social deprivation – drugs, junkies, debt, one night stands, fighting and ‘blood soaked hands’ and looking for something new.  Although the subject matter may be thought of as depressing, the tune is consistently upbeat and hopeful. 

Popular with the audience, ‘Sometime Around Midnight’ produced a sing-a-long reaction. With Nick Hayward ‘Fantastic Day’ type guitar rifts on the build up, Jollit’s voice starts softly, becoming more passionate and ending with shear anger. He tells the story of a past love encountered in a pub, the jealousy and fury that is felt when the old lover leaves with another man. As the song builds up, there is euphoric passion from the soul of the violin. Bulbrook sensually demonstrates this with and without said instrument throughout the performance but particularly with this song. It is, therefore, a very emotional song, starting softly and ending with great energy.

An anticipated audience awaits the singer to finish his slow introduction to ‘Happiness is Over Rated’ - ‘as losing you, is something I always…’the silence prevailed and the next line sung for him; ‘Did so well!’ Obviously with a sense of humour, a big grin stretched over his face. The audience knew the words and this must have given Jollit a sense of satisfaction as he entered into the anthemic section of the song.

The ‘Gasoline’ performance was another popular favourite. This has been around for sometime with exposure on Fifa 09 and now with its inclusion on Band Hero. The performance and song was abundant with energy. It is about adolescent sexuality and masturbation. The band members utilised the stage, climbed up the platform and interacted musically with each other.

‘Innocence’ was the last song to be performed before the encore. Not many people are familiar with the long live introduction and so when the main component of the song started with the violin, guitar intro and military drum beats, folk started to move and dance. As a popular track, this was a nice surprised to the uninitiated. This started slowly but ended with loud high energy. A song about losing virginity and feelings associated with this was a fitting to end the set. The weaving in and out from the sound of the violin added a dimension of sorrow and regret.

After much ‘wahooing’ and ‘more, more’ from the audience, the band re-immersed for the encore. Unfortunately, when announced that a cover of Bruce Springsteen’s ‘I’m On Fire’ members of the audience booed. However, in my view, the performance was quite good and their version bettered the original.

The track ‘Missy’ ended their performance. There was a whisper to Chen, who at this point was on keyboards and then to Bulbrook whilst chasing her, she shook the tambourine. They looked like they had enjoyed the gig and, by the looks of many happy faces, so did the audience.

This work is covered under Creative Commons License

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