Oxes at the Luminaire

Oxes at the Luminaire

03 November, 2008
by: Sween

It's all go, go, go tonight at this sold out night at the Lumi.

Lords kick off the rockin' with their jambalaya of fat-end blues, dizzy free jazz, raw garage hassle and sweaty, sexy rock 'n roll. They belt out tracks from their new album  'Everyone Is People' with style befitting their noble demeanour. 'Good Dog, Bad Dog' stands out, with its cheeky delta blues slide riff and KERRASH!ing finish. In all seriousness, they're like Led Zeppelin born in the 80s (oh, er, minus John Paul Jones. Who needs bassists anyway?). Its worth it just to see Elvis play drums with his exaggerated vigour – the best sticks west of Art Blakey.
 
If you gave Gang of Four a sense of humour and then made them apoplectic by stamping on their toes repeatedly, then you'd get the many-tentacled rancour of Bilge Pump. Screeching atonal guitars collide into rumbling bass, with a sardonic lyricism anchoring the brutish abstractions to the humdrum life which raises them. Redolent of The Fall, but without pretentions.

Oxes are fun. And I mean, really funny. Now, that's no mean feat for three guys who also rocked so unnecessarily hard that I was sore the next day. From the moment they come on stage bearing offerings of biscuits ('Its cold outside, you need cookies.'), to the impromptu versions of Tom Jones' 'It's not Unusual' used to berate the audience when their sing-along rhythm was off ('It's not unusual for Londoners to miss their obvious cue,'), to a scat singing jam, its hard to see how they fit in the ten tons of math-punk that bears close resemblance to the exuberant Shellac.

They rollocked through Nirvana's 'Drain You' using a volunteer Kurt from the audience, bashing about the room in unkempt wireless-guitar insanity, falling through the back of the stage, hiding behind amps and playing entire songs from atop their monitors; and through all this, they still managed to play like absolute champs. The only teenage covers band who evolved and evolved to a blinding virtuosity, but never lost that spirit of giving the audience a great time. And cookies.

Click here to see all Live music.
Click here to see all London Rock.
Click here to see all things to do in London.

Sween