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Dirty Pretty Things play gig for the Make Roads Safe campaign @ the Shepherd's Bush Empire, 22nd April 07
For the second time now, Carl Barat's new band, Dirty Pretty Things, get involved with the "Make Roads Save" campaign. After playing a charity gig at The Coronet last September with Paul Weller and Russell Brand as special guests, the four piece this time picked the Shepherd's Bush Empire as their location of choice.
The excitement among the fans was immense since this was not only the first gig the band was playing since January but also the first gig since the already legendary Libertines reunion at the Hackney Empire last week. A lot of people had been hoping for Pete Doherty to join Carl at his gig this time but they were disappointed in the end (thankfully the "Where is Pete?" chants did not start until the band appeared at a backstreet window after the gig).
Starting unusually early at 8pm due to the venue's very strict curfew, the event was started off by Indie necomers Hot Club de Paris, who have already been supporting Dirty Pretty Things on their tour last December. After starting off with a humorous a-capella number that had the band introducing themselves as the guys who "f**k everything that moves", the three piece launched into a fast paced and obviously Arctic Monkeys inspired set. But not everyone was impressed by their performance and halfway through their show the band had to deal with several people in the front row shouting "Die!" at them. But after a couple of songs like "I Quit My Job" and "What's My Name?", the crowd began to warm up to them. It was also quite refreshing to see that Hot Club de Paris does not seem to take themselves too seriously, repeatedly reminding the audience to drink responsively in between songs and big gulps from their own cans of beer, and introducing every second song with the words "This song's about Christmas", it was not very surprising that they lauched one of their songs with rather ironic beatbox impression. But although they are very charming performers, the music itself was unfortunately rather unimpressive. Sounding like they took their chords from an "Indie for Dummmies" manual, their career might be rather short lived. Their songs have good melodies, they sure know how to make an audience dance, and the every day life lyrics fit in quite nicely with their tunes, but in the end the spark is clearly missing.
Then it was time for the main act of the night. Taking the stage at ten past nine, exactly as announced, Dirty Pretty Things launched into their set with the new song "How Can They Be Tired of England", which had already been an audience favourite when first tested on the last tour. And this set the tune for the rest of the set, with the band playing a perfect mix of old favourites and new tracks that had been written during the last couple of months. And the fans seemed to welcome the change in the setlist just as much as the band, who played their most energetic set in a long time. Songs like "Wondering" and "Gin and Milk" were played in a way that shows clearly how much this band has grown together during a year of almost constant touring. They played one more new song with "Suits Punk Military" (which sounds less harsh and fast than the title might suggest) and had the crowd moshing wildly to "Deadwood" before it was time to announce the special guest for the night. Having played as a headline act at the Camden Crawl only two days earlier with his band The Charlatans, Tim Burgess joined his good friend Carl Barat onstage for a performance of "Bloodthirsty Bastards" (although he was struggling a bit with the lyrics and had to read them off a sheet from time to time). After that they launched into the Charlatans classic "North Country Boy" that had he crowd singing along on top of their lungs before Tim Burgess left the band alone on stage again.
The second half of the set saw more favourites like "You F***ing Love It" and "The Enemy" but also two more new tracks. "Best Face in the Place" can only be desicribed as a roaring old school punk number with a chorus of "Ey oh! Ey Oh!" chants (a track the fans took immidiately a strong liking to) and "Plastic Hearts", a more lighthearted number that has one of Carl's typical sing song bridges. The set then ended with the Libertines classic "I Get Along" (by the fans seen as Carl's personal anthem and the only Libertines track played that night), and has the fans crowd surfing like there was no tomorrow.
But the boys were far from being finished. After a short break they returned to the stage, without drummer Gary Powell at first, to rendition a sweet and old fashioned accoustic number called "Come Closer", fittingly followed by "B.U.R.M.A." (probably still the only lovesong on earth that ends with a chant of "Who's got the clap?"). Finishing off the night with "Last of the Small Town Playboys" and their debut hit "Bang Bang You're Dead", the band left the stage under deafening applause and cheers from the crowd. It seems that a very good night had been had by all. "Waterloo to Anywhere"? Tonight it seems like the only way to go now for these boys is to the top.
http://www.myspace.com/dirtyprettythingsofficial
http://www.myspace.com/hotclubdeparis
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