Smith Westerns at CAMP

Smith Westerns at CAMP

15 June, 2010
by: Domzig

Holy crap! They're how old?

Hailing from Shit-cago (their words, not ours), The Smith Westerns  have been all over the blogsphere recently –  mostly for two reasons; the freak-out tuneful garage rock they’ve been playing and the fact that they often follow up a kick-arse live shows by getting themselves kicked out of clubs for having a ‘grown-up’ drink. 

Their youthful looks take some getting used to, that’s for sure. Shuffling on to CAMP’s makeshift stage, they seem more like four kids at a costume party than an actual band, with lead singer Cullen looking like a cross between Keanu Reeves in Point Break and Lou Diamond Phillips in Young Guns II, and the bassist resembling a cartoon stoner. Still, they’re definitely over 18, so there’s at least there’s no chance of them being ejected by angry door staff for having a bottle of Stella.

Although they might look like a bunch of high school kids sponsored by American Apparel, The Smith Westerns are anything but a hollow fashion band with more style than substance. OK, the band’s sound reminds me of a lot of artists you’d find in my mum’s record collection (T-Rex and The Ramones mostly), but their boyish energy prevents them from sounding like some horrible covers band rehashing the songs of yore. As the Western’s opening salvo fizzes with sunshine riffs, hypnotic drums and a feel-good reverb-drenched haze, I’m pretty sure we’re in for a good night.

However, after the bright start, things start to go off the boil pretty quickly. As befitting a band whose main lyrical themes seem to revolve around meeting girls, asking them out and thinking about them a lot, The Smith Westerns have a lot of slow songs. Not that much of a problem when you listen to them on record, but when a band buzz out fast songs like ‘Gimme Some Time’ live, then songs like ‘Boys Are Fine’ are always going to seem fairly plodding in comparison. The result is a set that seems bedevilled by a stop-start pace that has you punching the air exclaiming ‘woo!’ one second, and staring at your feet the next.

In fact, a general sense of bittiness is probably the main problem with The Smith Westerns tonight.  As the show progresses, I can’t help but get the feeling that the whole performance is ever so slightly bi-polar, with awesome, dreamy guitar lines leading into pretty average songs that make you switch off until an amazing vocal melody emerges from the drudge-like haze to capture your attention once again. Fortunately the band has the good grace to make their set pretty short, so thankfully it’s over before any real frustration sets in.

Don’t get me wrong, The Smith Westerns are a good band – listening to their last album definitely proves that. It’s just that last night, for some reason – maybe it was a case of the Mondays, a bad burger, a long drive or Jupiter being in the house of Orion or whatever – they were pretty so-so. Certainly not terrible by any stretch, but just alright.

The Smith Westerns are playing White Heat tonight and are supporting Everything Everything at the Garage on Wednesday. We promise they'll be good, you should go.

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Domzig