Viva Machine - Cardiff Clwb Ifor Bach
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Viva Machine
Date: 06/09/07
Rating: ****
Editor's note; This review is of Viva Machine playing as the opening band for the Future of the Left show in Cariff last week. Being the incredible show it was, we didn't want to have Viva Machine just as a mention in a paragraph of another band's review, so we did it all seperate, innit. See here for the Future of the Left review... and enjoy!
Swansea’s Viva Machine open up in front of this modest Thursday night crowd as if OUR lives depended on it. An idea of how intensely they deliver this set – the opening act of a bill of three – is that drummer DP has lost his shirt before the first song, electric opener ‘Earthquakers And Loveshakers’, is even finished.
Their music bounces and shakes with the energy of a band already good enough to headline, unwanted stabs of feedback are ignored in favour of pushing themselves that little bit further - the gap before the stage left by the reluctant ‘who’s this?’ audience is turned into frontman Chris’ playground. More familiar numbers, such as ‘Yo-Ho’ and ‘Robot Bodyrox’ fit seamlessly alongside newer album tracks like the instrument swapping, urgent ‘Here Comes The Speed Of Light’. The effort and energy involved pays off, as the gaps between songs are permeated with gradually increasing cheers from the crowd.
What is surprising is how it sounds. Compared to the last time Rocklouder saw them, they sound harder and heavier, but with all their unstoppably catchy pop harmonies and keyboard wizardry intact. It’s a sound that covers all manner of genres – ‘A Futuristic Dracula’ in particular sounding like three songs in one. Hard to pigeonhole, Viva Machine have been compared to The Automatic for their similarly uplifting bounce and just the fact these fellow Welshmen toured together. In reality, the one thing the two bands do have in common is their ability to take influences that couldn’t be further from mainstream, and craft them into something as catchy and accessible as it is fiery and intense. They end with ‘Death Star Trucker’, possibly the most fun you can have in less than three and a half minutes, and when Chris ends the set folded in half with his keyboard in the middle of the crowd, the reception that greets them is fully deserving of the impressive effort they put in.
Currently without a label, if Viva Machine can keep pulling off shows like this as an opening act they should be snapped up in no time.
Phillip May
Viva Machine Myspace
Buy Viva Machine CDs | Buy Viva Machine mp3s | Buy Viva Machine Tickets | Buy Viva Machine Merch
Date: 06/09/07
Rating: ****
Editor's note; This review is of Viva Machine playing as the opening band for the Future of the Left show in Cariff last week. Being the incredible show it was, we didn't want to have Viva Machine just as a mention in a paragraph of another band's review, so we did it all seperate, innit. See here for the Future of the Left review... and enjoy!
Swansea’s Viva Machine open up in front of this modest Thursday night crowd as if OUR lives depended on it. An idea of how intensely they deliver this set – the opening act of a bill of three – is that drummer DP has lost his shirt before the first song, electric opener ‘Earthquakers And Loveshakers’, is even finished.
Their music bounces and shakes with the energy of a band already good enough to headline, unwanted stabs of feedback are ignored in favour of pushing themselves that little bit further - the gap before the stage left by the reluctant ‘who’s this?’ audience is turned into frontman Chris’ playground. More familiar numbers, such as ‘Yo-Ho’ and ‘Robot Bodyrox’ fit seamlessly alongside newer album tracks like the instrument swapping, urgent ‘Here Comes The Speed Of Light’. The effort and energy involved pays off, as the gaps between songs are permeated with gradually increasing cheers from the crowd.
What is surprising is how it sounds. Compared to the last time Rocklouder saw them, they sound harder and heavier, but with all their unstoppably catchy pop harmonies and keyboard wizardry intact. It’s a sound that covers all manner of genres – ‘A Futuristic Dracula’ in particular sounding like three songs in one. Hard to pigeonhole, Viva Machine have been compared to The Automatic for their similarly uplifting bounce and just the fact these fellow Welshmen toured together. In reality, the one thing the two bands do have in common is their ability to take influences that couldn’t be further from mainstream, and craft them into something as catchy and accessible as it is fiery and intense. They end with ‘Death Star Trucker’, possibly the most fun you can have in less than three and a half minutes, and when Chris ends the set folded in half with his keyboard in the middle of the crowd, the reception that greets them is fully deserving of the impressive effort they put in.
Currently without a label, if Viva Machine can keep pulling off shows like this as an opening act they should be snapped up in no time.
Phillip May
Viva Machine Myspace
Buy Viva Machine CDs | Buy Viva Machine mp3s | Buy Viva Machine Tickets | Buy Viva Machine Merch
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