The Faint at Cargo

The Faint at Cargo

01 September, 2008
by: Domzig

Let's face it, The Faint are a bit of a guilty pleasure. It's always hard to admit that you like '80s new romantic music to people, and The Faint have become what in effect amounts up to an OK way of listening to Yazoo without having to field the awkward questions that inevitably crop up when all your friends listen to Throwdown and Queen of Swords.

Therefore we have to pretty much sneak to an absolutely sweltering Cargo tonight. and as we're running to the bar and to neck pints of ice-cold water I notice that all the crowd has a few familiar faces and the odd familiar tattoo in the assembled crowd. Just goes to show really that even hardened Black Flag fans can get behind electro pop when the time is right.

The heat seems to be affecting everyone but The Faint, with Todd Fink looking a bit like a cross between the lead singer of OMD and the professor off the front of a Wheatos box. They power through a set of catchy-as-hell electro-pop that instantly takes everyone’s minds off the fact that they're meltingm and has the place smiling like a bunch of merry idiots by the ned of the third song.

As a guy who has followed the band since 'Blank Wave Arcade', I must admit that I wasn’t surprised that they sold out Cargo in what seems like record time - people seem to just fall in love with these guys and follow them without question. Tonight The Faint make the commendable decision of playing a ‘greatest hits’ set rather than just plugging the new album 'Fasciination', so that the place going nuts for the better part of the evening – even if the AV segment looks as if it had been done by foundation students at Hackney College.

All in all it’s a highly nostalgic evening in more ways than one. Whilst The Faint have done nothing to dispel the criticism that they can be a bit like a rehash of The Human League  or a smarter, more kid-friendly version of Cabaret Volitare: it reminds everyone that '80s tinted new-wave makes for a pretty fucking good party.

The Faint have a single called 'The Geeks Were Right' out at the moment; you can read all about it in our 'New Releases' article on Spoonfed Music. Click here to find out about other gigs at Cargo.

Domzig