Young Knives, Edinburgh, Electric Circus
Young Knives, by Kenny McMurtrie
By Kenny McMurtrie
October 23, 2011
Hands down winners in the ordinary bloke stakes, Loughborough’s finest export/escapees Young Knives delivered a thoroughly unpretentious and entertaining end to the weekend tonight. Having been the biggest happening since the launch of Sputnik in Leslie, Fife (pop. 3,100) the night before and with the charms of Wakefield ahead it seems pretty safe to say that they’re not following a conventional tour pattern in promoting Ornaments From The Silver Arcade. Would you though expect anything less?
Between rousing renditions of ‘Human Again’, ‘Terra Firma’, ‘She’s Attracted To’, ‘Half Timer’ and a bunch more, the Dartnell brothers engaged in plenty of crowd pleasing banter, thereby providing plenty of laughs along with the music, whilst Olly sported a tash worthy of Movember and numerous Seventies cop shows. Stage presence is one thing but to have the confidence and humility to be able to waffle away to a crowd as if they’re the regulars in your local is a talent many more acts could do with working on. They’re troupers who’re clearly still enjoying all aspects of being in a band and as such you’d expect to see them still at it delivering the goods for a long while to come.
First on stage tonight were local boys My Tiny Robots. Apart from the singer having a haircut that provoked approving commentary from a section of the crowd their set passed off inoffensively enough without leaving any real lasting impression. Mid-table in the lower league of current indie newcomers. Second up, and with a possibly brighter future ahead of them, came Foreign Office. Combining all the best bits of Orange Juice, Josef K and Talking Heads they made for engaging viewing, especially on the songs ‘Elephants’ and ‘Shake Hands With A Knife’. Civil service themed band names tend, I think, to not herald future fame and fortune for bands, but in the current climate these guys look pretty capable of bucking that trend and making a good go of it.
