Thursday night gigs are generally a thing of the past for me now that I live out in the sticks and get up at an ungodly hour, and attending the Dirty Hearts Club gigs (which are probably my favourite gigs in Aberdeen) seems to happen about once, maybe twice a year if I'm lucky seeing as they start and finish so bloody late! These gigs should be on a Friday, sort it out Mr Snafu.
I was delighted with the timing of Fridge Magnets first Aberdeen gig - the small matter of The Underkills' frontman's stag weekend the following day meant I didn't have to get up before morning glory had set in. I was quite excited to see Fridge Magnets after checking out their Myspace page a couple of months ago.
So, back to the "action" - I managed to rope in The Underkills drummer (how many Underkills plugs do you reckon I can get into this review?) to head along to Snafu with me, and as we were walking in, I said "I reckon it will be quite busy tonight" - we walked in to an empty Snafu. And I mean empty. We were customers number 1 and 2. I was confident that Fridge Magnets frontman Steve Winton of Kashmir Red fame would have every hot chick in Aberdeen coming along to the gig, and I was right - they were all upstairs having a cocktail or three in Five before heading down for the gig.
To ease things along we were served two of the finest pints of lager the world has ever tasted. Draft Tiger at Snafu is absolutely amazingly good. Unfortunately, I could only have one as I was driving, but the drummer had about five in 30 minutes because they tasted so good. At £3.20 a pint, it would need to be good!
Eventually, at about 23:20 (what kind of time is that to start a gig!?), Fridge Magnets took to the stage just as the place was filling up nicely.
"Is This Music?" started the show - an electro catchy backdrop with Winton doing something between talking and shouting "Is this music?" - is that a Glaswegian accent I can hear? Weird. I liked the song okay, but it wasn't as good as I was expecting for the opener. I can see what they are trying to do here with the song, as the tempo kind of builds up, and the song gets louder, with Winton's vocals more rousing towards the end of the song. I think it was cut short due to a technical difficulty with the backing track (at least, that's how it looked anyway). I'm not sure if they intended to blast straight into the second song after building up the first one, but that isn't what happened. I don't know if Fridge Magnets have a suggestion box, but if they did, I would be dropping my wee bit of scribbled on scrap paper, saying: "I suggest whispering the vocals for at least the first half of "Is This Music?" and build it up to a big finish at the end, and fire straight into the second song without a break." I'm sure that would work and would work well.
On with the show, and after a stuttering start, Fridge Magnets grew in stature. The songs got progressively better - tracks 3 and 4 (apologies I don't know any of the song names) were particularly good. If we're looking at comparisons (which we always are at Aberzine HQ...), I think a mash up of Kasabian, Bloc Party, White Lies and maybe even a touch of Calvin Harris thrown in for good measure. Steve Winton is a massive personality on the Aberdeen Music Scene who everyone knows, and it shows at his gigs, as he always manages to pull a decent crowd (did I mention the hot chicks?), and his personality comes across on stage with Fridge Magnets. With no guitar to hide behind, he was bounding with energy on the small Snafu stage, trying at every opportunity to engage the crowd - an Aberdeen crowd can often be a difficult one, even if it is full of your mates, but Winton and the Fridge Magnets did manage to get them dancing at times.
When the opening chords of a cover of Calvin Harris's "I'm Not Alone" (I think that's what it was - I'm not up on Calvin Harris's back catalogue, so apologies if that's wrong) kicked in, a massive cheer went up, and the crowd were well and truly onside for the rest of the set.
The last song was a great finish to a very accomplished set. I was a bit worried during the first song, that I was going to be disappointed but I really wasn't - Fridge Magnets have the potential to be a great band. As far as I'm aware this was Fridge Magnets first gig, and just for a laugh they are following it up with an appearance at Rock Ness (Strongbow Tent) today at 8pm (strongly recommend you check them out if you're going), King Tut's in Glasgow, supporting Unicorn Kid, and T in the Park (T Break Stage). Good work guys! Fridge Magnets will be back in Aberdeen in November - keep an eye out.
Stand out track - the last one (sorry, don't know what it's called)
Rating - *** (and a half, nearly 4)
www.myspace.com/fridgemagnetsglasgow
what a pointless post if you don't know the names of the songs
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