Backing Bands

Last night I went to see British Sea Power at Koko in Camden. As you might expect from a band voted Time Out Live Band of the Year in 2004, they were good. In fact, they were very good. And the bear costume was very good. Much better than you might expect from a bear costume. Quite why British Sea Power have a bear coming on stage for the finale I have no idea. But it works.

However, the backing bands weren't great. In fact, they were pretty shit. The first band on stage was the best of the backing bands - a French combo where the lead vocals were shared between a guitar playing bloke and a bass playing girl. I'm not sure whether they were shagging, but if they weren't then they should be. The levels of sexual tension and frustration on the stage were sky high.

Then we had a strange fella taking to the stage with an acoustic guitar. Just him, and his guitar. And his collection of really shit songs. I haven't seen such a weird and shit set since I was in a lesbian bar in Amsterdam, watching another solo acoustic guitarist go through his collection of demented songs (one was called "Jihad", another was a love song that included the lyric "I'm going to poke her in her love hole"...) Songs that include lyrics like "Porcupine Pineapple" should be retained for an individual's private world, and only really performed to the singer's mother during the brief breaks the singer takes between bouts of frenzied masturbation. Not sung on a large stage at a busy venue.

And finally we had a band of what looked like students. Despite desperately trying to be cool, their music was quite good and they had at least tried to present themselves in an slightly original way. What a shame, then, that their lyrics were complete crap. One song seemed to be about "what is your favourite number?" and "what is the reason for that?" My replies: "I don't have a favourite number" because "I am not autistic."

Which brings us to the burning question - not so much why do headliners have backing bands, but rather why do headliners have such shit backing bands? Other big bands I've seen have had equally shite backing bands, so it isn't just British Sea Power. Part of me thinks that the headliners deliberately choose the worst possible bands to back them, in the hope that even if they have a really bad night, at least their backing bands will have been worse, making them look good in comparison. Sounds cynical, but I really can't think of any other reason why British Sea Power would have a tit with an acoustic guitar gurning his way through a set of sub-Radiohead/REM songs on stage before they come on.