Ironworks, Inverness, 22 November 2006

Drive By Argument. (Photo - Chris Green)

IS IT ME or has there been a 90s revival of late?! Oasis releasing a ‘best of’, All Saints and Take That reforming, and The Ironworks securing two big name Indie acts in one week, Gomez and The Charlatans.

All this nostalgia has been great – instigating rants about the classic anthems and albums that accompanied our (now sepia-tinted) teens. And it was with ears still ringing from the previous night’s Charlatan’s gig that I returned to The Ironworks to catch Drive By Argument, the latest Scottish band tipped for the top.

The crowd was very different from the night before. Finding ourselves among a mass of bright-faced, skinny-jeaned, Bebo devotees, us Indie kids suddenly didn’t feel so young. We filtered to the back, finding solace in space… and an emptyish bar… wishing we had a nice parka to roll up in.

But then the music kicked in.

First up were Inverness band Theatre Fall. With infectious Electro-infused Indie-Rock, it’s little wonder these guys are fast becoming local Emo darlings. If they continue to progress at this rate, they’re sure to have a bright future.

The same cannot be said of Echo 20, however. The Perth-based lads started their set with menacing synths and an empty stage, but failed to live up to their hype.

The music careered from heavy rock, to pensive Electronica, to Indie-Funk, leaving me as baffled about their aim as I was about their gimmicky costumes. Maybe it was just that they didn’t quite fit into the Emo bill. Or maybe we were just impatient for the headline act.

And who wouldn’t be with a write up like Drive By’s? The story goes they were thrust together for a college music project. Despite initial doubts, they soon found their music was actually pretty special and have since played at King Tut’s and T in the Park. They’ve recently been signed by London label Lizard King Records and are set to release their first single at the start of 2007.

When the stage was set, though, Drive By didn’t keep us waiting. They tumbled on, picked up their instruments and blasted us with energy. Playing Songs such as ‘Sex Lines Are Expensive Comedy’ and ‘The Satan Effort’, they proved themselves as capable of full on Emo-Rock as they are of the kind of magically uplifting, atmospheric, slow burners that Snow Patrol are famed for.

Add in the fact these guys are skilled musicians with blustering passion (drummer Lewis Gardiner is a manic cross between Russel Brand and Keith Moon) and you can see why the London set are excited.

Yeah, nostalgia’s great and classics will always live on, but with music as competent and visceral as this, you can’t help but get excited by the new scene. In fact, I must go and check my Bebo site….

© Susan Szymborksi, 2006

Link

• Ironworks