Tubelord with Olympians and Samoans @ Undertone

Undertone is a peculiar venue and it takes a lot for a band to showcase themselves properly in the intimate space that is the basement of 10 Feet Tall in Cardiff. Sunday 8th February saw this attempted by Tubelord with stellar support from Olympians and some more support from Samoans.

Starting the evening off, Samoans began well with engaging guitar rifts and an excited energy. They were confident players but lacking something. With two guitars, some drums and hoarse vocals they never promised anything revolutionary but there was definitely a sense of missed potential. Samoans came across as a band capable of being very interesting but unwilling to do anything different. They were let down when it came to the vocals and I found myself at times straining to hear the sounds I enjoyed over the ones that I did not. In all, they were a welsh band that sounded a lot like a welsh band and, unfortunately, it wasn't anything too notable.

Olympians followed and provided what was the big treat of the evening, for me. Their sound was completely assured even when taking unusual turns and dipping into separate tempos and styles mid song. In fact, such changes brought smiles to faces like the best bands manage with their best songs. Olympians were comfortable in the venue and comfortable doing something memorable. In fairness, they had a bit of an advantage from the start as they arrived with a trumpet and a glockenspiel along with the customary drumsticks and picks and instrumental varieties do make me happy. Even when the songs weren't particularly great, they continued to effortlessly exhibit a distinctive sound. Of course, it is easy to compare bands and hints of Mew and Beirut among others threaded their way through songs but more in the feel of the music rather than in a this-song-sounds-like-that-song manner. Another thing these guys did better was the way in which they filled the venue with their sound, a difficult feat with more than two instruments and a task which saw Samoans sounding like they were trying to catastrophically crash upwards. Olympians made it very hard for me to be at all critical -and that is a triumph in and of its own.

When Tubelord began their set I immediately felt something I had not felt in a long time. Years, even. A medium sized spider had fallen on my head and was making its way south down my face. Once I realised that this sensation wasn't a deep musical connection and I scraped the bugger off my nose I got over the distraction by listening to some catchy fun indie rock. There really isn't too many other ways to describe this band. Not to be disparaging but it was the kind of music that is abundant, and has been for a while now, but not in a bad way. More upbeat than the Cribs, less annoying than Los Campesinos with some of the off kilter guitars that lie beneath tracks by Battles and Foals. Actually, that was something I did notice throughout the gig. Despite the passage of time, there are still so many bands out there trying to make the kind of music the kids in Skins would listen to (the first one, I am old). This irritates me somewhat, but there is an enjoyable sound to be found in tracks which compromise between this influence and more contemporary themes. Although, I am getting sick of 'tick tock' in lyrics. Sorry.

One final note. All three bands on the night (Tubelord the most, Olympians the least) reminded me to lament on the inexplicably heavy influence Temper Trap seem to be having on new bands. Not that Tubelord are relatively new, they just sound like they have just started, but they two albums out, and they are not terrible.

Verdict: One thumbs up with a potential new favourite.


Samoans bandcamp
Olympians bandcamp
Tubelord bandcamp