hecklergigs: Spinto Band/Morning After Girls, Camden Barfly, March 3

We arrived just in time to catch the last two songs from the Fratellis, warming up the crowd with some good growly swashbuckling rock, the room was already packed and it was shaping up to be a good night.

Next up, Australian five piece The Morning After Girls arrive and make their presence known with a wall of moody solid rock that segues subtly into a quiet interlude. Aimee Nash is the only actual girl, hitting two tambourines together, and playing keys occasionally – but collectively they have a nice slow, waking up, sleepy-eyed feel.

The Morning After Girls (CDs) continue to blanket us in dreamy soft focus vocal harmonies with Chasing Us Under. Then Sacha strums an acoustic to begin Hidden
Spaces, and the others join in and blend seamlessly. The darker,
rockier Run For Our Lives follows, with Martin growling into the mic
from behind his well cut dark fringe.

They continue with more of their
broad country-flavoured rock haziness; Aimee sings while Sacha adds the
harmonies, and the effect is just smokey enough, possibly helped by the
amount of lit cigarettes in the room. Their final song comes in with a
dark bassline leading to a quieter steely solo momentarily, then they
launch back in with a burst of energy. A slow burner we’d say, and
definitely worth a listen.

And then it’s time for The
Spinto Band (CDs). They’re from Delaware. They formed sometime around 1996. And we liked them before you did. They jump straight in
with some thrashy dance moves, then there’s lots of head-wagging and
mic-sharing going on. It’s like watching The Beatles pay tribute to The
Flaming Lips, with a few Pavement influences and Beach Boys harmonies
thrown in for good measure. Loads of fresh faced enthusiasm, and cute "Ah-oh"-ing puts a big smile on my face, and we’re all dancing and
jumping like a bunch of big kids.

The chugging intro to the next song prompts the people next to us to
sing Boys And Girls by Blur, but it’s not time for covers yet - just
more of this gorgeous pop rock sensibility, and a sense of fun in the
air. For the first few seconds of the next tune, Thomas and Sam Hughes
stand comically frozen, then join in the dancing and smiling.

The
triumphant and beautiful Direct To Helmet hits us next, like another
refreshing wave of pure quirky pop bliss, from it’s operatic "Oooh
ooh"s at the beginning, to the earnest smile on Thomas’ face as he
sings. During Brown Boxes, there are people pogoing like crazy. It all makes more sense when the
band play their kazoos for this song. When the set’s finally finished,
we’re all yelling for more, and boy do we get it. They start with a
cover of Tiffany’s I Think We’re Alone Now. The whole room’s singing
the chorus, it’s brilliant. Then they bring on birthday boy Albert (ex-band member, now does their artwork and directed the latest video) to
join in a special performance of Everybody Do The Dinosaur, all of
them lining up at the front of the stage to do a choreographed dance
routine at the end! That made our night.

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[review by Dedee W]