Normally I’m not a big fan of squeezing three bands into a show, especially somewhere like The Haunt where they kick you out early. It often means a rubbish band on first playing to an empty room. Still I got down to the venue early to see and was pleasantly surprised to walk in to a reasonably crowded room just as the opener InTechnicolour were finishing their first song. I was soon totally captivated by them, they were entertaining to watch and had a good heavy indie-rock sound that nicely got me in the mood.

After an impressively short change over, considering the size of the band, Flamingods took to the stage. They had caught my attention before when their album came out last year but this was the first time I’d seen them live. They are quite an eclectic band. With two percussionists as well as a drummer they had a great assortment of beats and rhythms, add in the assortment of guitars and other strange stringed instruments and it was quite a cacophony of sounds. They said they are playing The Great Escape festival a couple of times this year and I was so impressed I might just try to catch them again at one of those shows.

So the support bands actually did what they were supposed to and by the time The Physics House Band came on stage I was nicely warmed up and ready for the show. This is a band I have seen a few times and they never fail to impress. I’m happy to report that tonight was no exception. It’s not an easy sound to describe but here is my attempt: math-rock with forceful gravity, momentum, dynamic and any of the other wonderful descriptions you can think of that physics has given us. For a three-piece band with no lyrics it’s quite a feat to create a body of work that is entertaining and as powerful as they manage to pull off. Yet they manage to blend together the drums, guitar, bass and a bit of synth with just the right mix to keep your attention. Sometimes raising to heavy metal levels that make you want to mosh around, then dropping it down to almost minimalistic 80s synth rock sections that beg you to shut your eyes and let the music wash over you.

Obviously without lyrics it’s not always easy to separate the songs or know exactly what the themes behind them are, especially live without being able to refer back to the song titles. It’s not like they are the sort of band to babble on about things between songs. There was the token microphone on stage which Adam Hutchison occasionally used. He is the unofficial frontman who does not sing, mainly I guess because he seems to be the only one who is not tied to the drum kit or the synthesisers Sam Organ, the guitarist, uses. So he is freer to dance around the stage.

Of course if you are not going to say much then you should really get it right but the comedy part of the evening came when Adam tried the sales pitch only to blat out there was merchandise “for there over sale”, the right words but in the wrong order. It was actually a nice bit of light relief before being thrown back into the music that demands you pay attention.

At the end of the show everyone wanted more but a strict curfew meant that was all for tonight. Never a bad thing in my books if a band leaves you wanting more and just play through to the end without doing the whole going off stage and coming back on again routine. Impressively the band was already behind the merch table by the time it took me to get from the front of the venue to the back, it’s nice to see a band that would rather hang out with the fans after instead of hiding back stage getting drunk with their mates.

It’s not hard to see why they seem to be going from strength to strength, they seem to take the whole thing very seriously and have created a nice niche that has really hit the spot for a lot of people. An enjoyable show from beginning to end and I left the venue buzzing.
Jonski Mason.

Website: thephysicshouseband.com
Facebook: facebook.com/thephysicshouseband
Twitter: twitter.com/thephysicshb