Previously published on mintsouth.com in May 2009
Words - Suzy Sims
Editor - Rob Ball
(c) mintsouth
DAN BLACK, INSTALLATION + OVERREACT @ SOUTHAMPTON JOINERS 05/05/09
“I was dreaming when I saw you,” Dan Black sings on ‘Alone’. Similarly I really enjoyed this gig, despite daydreaming through the bright lush sounds which surrounded me throughout.
First onstage is some pop punk in primary colours courtesy of Overreact - a name which makes you think of the media’s reaction to swine flu, in a roundabout way. With the jerky melodies and excessive fringe, they really are similar to a young Johnny Foreigner and there’s also a touch of The Rakes to their music. With badges stretching down their guitar straps, the band puzzle onstage over how they made it onto this line up. The music might be a tad different the headliner but it’s enjoyably scrappy and the band show a lot of promise, particularly during the indie dance tracks.
Next onstage, Installation are greeted by their friends with cheers of “Oi oi!” Opening with a hooping synth, the band have a fascinating mix of songs, samples and drum and bass, with possible reactions alternating between dancing like an ape or lying on the floor looking at the stars. You know at music festivals when it’s 3am, everyone’s in bed and everything is closed apart from that one tent pumping out trippy grooves? Their set was like this.
Singer Gav Brook was in a camouflage jacket so I kept losing him amongst the foliage on stage (/sarcasm). There is heaps of energetic bass, funky samples, strong rapping and beautiful female vocals (courtesy of Laura Wolfe) gliding across the top, giving a strange, otherworldly feeling. Something a bit different, and very atmospheric.
The headliner tonight is Dan Black, a crisply suited man whose stiff dancing is given a warm glow by the cerise and lemon neon ‘DB’ panels behind. Previously known as the singer and guitarist in The Servant, Black has now stepped out on his own to bring his electro to the country. He’s a fascinating frontman.
It’s glorious dirty pop with a powerful kick, absolutely bursting with life. Songs we get tonight include ‘Alone’, ‘U + Me’, ‘Ecstatsy’ and as well as plenty of others from debut album ’Un’. The lads in the crowd demand an encore. “We haven’t got any more songs!” Black laughs. They’re not all pumping, psyching synth beats either; unexpectedly there are some quite sweet and laidback tunes in there.
One of the band is playing a mini keyboard, and a bloke in the crowd makes a grab for the tambourine but splatters his drink across the floor. “You fucked your beer up,” notes Black with a smile. “But you got a tambourine out of it. It’s kind of a trade off.” He deals with the crowd very easily. At the end he thanks all of us, “especially the dancing men.”
It might be more suited to a Saturday night, but Dan Black’s neon pop can still get the crowd dancing any day of the week.
http://www.myspace.com/overreact
http://www.myspace.com/installationband
http://www.danblacksound.com
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