Gig 15: The Dark Rooms, Echoing the sound, POB / The Dublin Castle / 16.04.12

The Dublin Castle in Camden was one of Amy Winehouse’s regular haunts and signed photos of her adorn the bar you walk through to get to the venue out back.
As we walked in, I realised POB was already on stage.
There weren’t many people in the venue – no more than ten – but as POB told the crowd, he was trying out new material so the setting didn’t matter too much.
POB’s music can be described as electropop – a blend of boybands and electronica. He sang to backing tracks which didn’t particularly help hm but I enjoyed the set all the same.
It’s not my kind of music but I respect the fact he has the balls to sing what he wants.

Echoing the Sound took to the stage with an impressive display of rock funk. The musicians were perhaps too flashy – and I struggled with it. They were a little too flashy – and I didn’t feel they got the basics right. There’s no point in doing a slap bass fast rhythm section arrangement if you haven’t got your timing locked down in the first place. I wasn’t a huge fan of the singers voice – but I’m sure there are many people that would be. They played a fairly quick set and the Dark Rooms stepped up shortly afterwards.

The Dark Rooms played energetic punk indie-rock – the singer sang with gusto and entirely acted the lead singer part. He really got into it and most of the audience followed him down the rabbit-hole.
One crazed (drunk?) fan in particular seemed to be worshipping the band with some sort of rain dance. If she’d had a ribbon on a stick – she’d have been throwing shapes across the dancefloor that would challenge most mid 90s Christian dance troupes. The band played a set of Artic Monkeys style tracks. It was enjoyable – if a bit samey – but they definitely deserved the headline slot.