Live Review : NME Radar Tour at The Wedgewood Rooms

Once again The NME Radar Tour landed in Portsmouth, With an offering of the unknown or known to the just over 100 in attendance. In previous years we have been lucky to see a plethora of talent through The Wedgewood Rooms doors which includes Anna Calvi, Hurts, Darwin Deez, Everything Everything, Friendly Fires, Maximo Park, White Lies, The Cribs and many more. This tour brings us a vast musical collection of bands in the form of Niki & The Dove, S.C.U.M and Wolf Gang.

Niki & The Dove

A cataclasm of noise began the first set of the evening, Niki & The Dove play Passion Pitt meets Ellie Goulding. It’s theoretically a girl and 2 guys with a lot of knobs that make a massive sound, every track that was played made Niki ever more endearing along with the thought that there could be so much more to come from the band themselves.

Stand out track ‘Drum’ was a fresh take with a catchy repetitive vocal lovingly partnered with the innovative dance moves of Niki herself. Personally I would have placed the band further up the line up but it was clear the band themselves were enjoying just purely performing to anybody who would listen.

S.C.U.M

Without introduction S.C.U.M began there set under lights but without hesitation after the first song lead singer Tom Cohen insisted on the view of the band be cut, the constants of the strobe be our only vision of them in shadows. Absent vocals and pretential (I made that word up, like pretentious and potential together) was the downfall of S.C.U.M, the gangly figure of Cohen was like watching a young Geldof pre-’I don’t like Mondays’ a swagger which didn’t score him high with the crowd.

The potential of the band is there, they are outspoken and completely out of the current musical scene. Where would you put them? What and where would they like to go from here? The questions are endless, But it does get very monotonous very quickly. A memorable performance but only for the white outlines that were left in my retina.

Wolf Gang

Anything to follow from the previous performance was a breath of fresh air, the ever humble front man of Wolf Gang Max took to the stage with his band for what seemed like the only performance the crowd were waiting to see. A band made of bands already passed included guitarist Gavin (formerly of Ghosts) and drummer Lasse (formerly of The Rakes) gave the edge on the performance.

I can’t help but wonder if Wolf Gang may have possibly missed the band boat with all the catchy riffs and bouncy pop…It’s all a bit Iglu & Hartley meets The Feeling. ‘Lions In Cages’ has a certain ‘Use Somebody’ vocal but ‘The King and all his men’ has been constantly whirring around my brain since seeing it performed. Shine a light over here, They deserve it.

An enjoyable evening with music very different in scales, I hope for good things of Niki & The Dove over the next year, S.C.U.M will continue below the radar until they feel ready to join us in the real world and Wolf Gang await the spotlight. The only downside of the evening was the lack of audience who I can only say missed out, As they always do.