Pete and The Pirates, Camden Enterprise, 30 January

Pete and The Pirates

Idea’s great, right?

(a) Get an incongruent bill comprising electronic improvisation and sporadic layering (Pevin Kinel), Victorian Britain-meets-Braveheart violent twee-pop (The Bobby McGees) and sweet, well-executed guitar pop (Pete and The Pirates) in the form of an acoustic set

(b) Stick them in a tiny room of about 100 people

(c) Interview Pete and The Pirates on stage and have an interactive Q+A sesh after that

On paper, super; in practice, civilisation-questioning. ‘the Pirates’ Little Death is one of the most underappreciated albums we’ve happed upon for a number of years at least in the sense that it’s so accessible, so universal. Quietly composed and beautifully crafted, the album’s delights reveal themselves more with each listen, at first just coming across like another generic delicate guitar band. They’re as underrated as Good Shoes, unfortunately. Maybe it’s the whimsical names?

But enough of that. We’ve seen Pete et al supporting a few bands in our time, and they didn’t grab us. It’s probably because the song structures all sound a bit quiet guitar/-/harmony/lots of guitar/meh/quiet guitar. That sounds cruel but in a way it’s the biggest sell – who knew that such simplicity could warrant so many repeated listens and define the sound of a band (successfully) crying out for your love.

So what went wrong?

(a) Talkative, twattish crowd

(b) Drawn out supports inducing open eyes, befuzzled ears and air raid shelter-esque ducking from sweets being thrown at heads

(c) The ‘interview’, by god, the interview – there is only one word necessary for this: WTF

(d) The Michael Jackson blaring out from the main pub down below

In short, consisting of a stooge of an interviewer mumbling, cowering, eking a series of incongruent words in a soliloquy followed by a silence of at least 30 seconds eventually followed by a bizarre response, it was a Massive Death, not just a Little one. Oh ho ho.

Except it wasn’t funny. AT ALL. It’s usually only at the larger, more publicised gigs that the audience are such futile beings en masse. Talking through entire sets is wrong, why isn’t that a base level statement accepted by all? It’s as fundamental as respect in day-to-day life, isn’t it? And putting an artist in a position where they’re asking people who’ve paid to see them to shut their traps is plain iniquitous.

Pretty much a travesty is this night, but don’t let it put you off of Pete and The Pirates – try getting hold of the Wait Stop Begin EP first off and stick it in your ears for a few days on end. If you fail to fall, then go check out Yo La Tengo, Pavement, Maxïmo Park, Field Music… basically all of our favourite bands.

Oh and they played a set something like this, for the completists out there:

‘Come On Feet’
‘Lost In The Woods’
‘Jenifer’
‘She Doesn’t Belong To Me’
‘Selina’
‘Knots’
‘Mr Understanding’

Until we left, that was…

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