The Klaxons | Club Midway | 9.19.2006

British indie band The Klaxons made their US debut last night at the newly-christened Club Midway (formerly Scenic) – a near-bust that wasn't really the band's fault.

I'd been to Scenic a handful of times but was never a fan of the space and my opinion hasn't changed now that it's got a different name. The downstairs, low-ceilinged performance area is one of those rooms where the "stage" is just the floor on the far end of the room, so unless you're very tall or in the front few rows, you can't see shit.

The main difference between Scenic and Club Midway, from what I could tell, was that they moved the soundboard area from the left middle of the room to the back, near the bathrooms. The board looked new but it was old crappy sound for the Klaxons. Their singles "Atlantis to the Interzone" and "Gravity's Rainbow" are like indie rock versions of early-'90s rave, real guitars, bass and drums but loads of samples and keyboards too. Actually that description sort of sounds like Pop Will Eat Itself, which actually isn't that far off (minus the rapping) or even a poppier Test Icicles.

But at Midway, it sounded like Faders To Eleven, everything overmodulated and too loud so it all came out sounding like distorted punk rock. That said, I thought they were pretty fun to watch and you could tell that with proper sound the Klaxons could probably tear it up.

The four-piece definitely looked like they raided their older-brothers' rave gear – let's just say 1991 fashion (think EMF) has not aged well. Their set was mercifully brief – I say that only as things started an hour and a half late. We left the club at 1AM which made getting up for my 9AM job no fun. That said, the club was pretty much packed with party people, scenesters, NME-readers, camera-happy bloggers (it was a bit out of control last night), at least one non-camera-wielding grup blogger, plus Jameses Murphy and Iha.

Norwegian group 120 Days were supposed to open but couldn't make it, so Le Tigre wannabes Holy Hail were nice enough to fill in. They were, in a word, bad. Solid rhythm section, though.

Picture swiped from Fiddle While You Burn's Flickr photostream.

Comments

[J]

Sorry to hear that about HH. I'd liked what I'd heard on their myspace and was looking forward to seeing them. Sounded like good, harmless fun.