White Rose Movement + Humanzi

Another gig and I try to get there early, but I still miss the first support slot, filled by Neil's Children. This isn't a good start… There's a lot of young people here, and the fact hits home when a kid wanders over and asks Music-news to buy him a beer. We oblige. We've all been there before.

Those who read other reviews here may remember when I missed Humanzi when they supported Towers of London last year at the 100 Club. Besides catching their last 2 songs way back then, this is the first time that I'm going to see them.

The scruffy youngsters come on stage to little fanfare and kick the night off. Well, for me they do. Very few bands impress me on seeing them for the first time. It may be because the live sound rarely does a band justice, or because I can't make my mind up quickly if I like them or not. Probably a combination of both points. But I have heard one or two Humanzi tracks before, so it's not total unfamiliar territory.

I'm not even going to compare them to anyone else, past or present, because I think it'll do them an injustice. I take my hat off to a band that isn't being another Libertines or another Kaiser Chiefs, It takes balls to do your own thing and hope that there are a few people out there that agree with you. By the crowd reaction, it looks like there are.

Their guitars crash around bass heavy riffs with a bit of keyboards thrown in too. And I hate keyboards a lot of the time, but not this time. It works. And well. Humanzi are bubbling under in the indie scene, it's about time they popped out the top, especially with forth coming single “Diet Pills & Magazines”.

White Rose Movement appear to have a bigger following than I thought and are greeted with roar from the young crowd! Humanzi may have put their influences in a blender before dishing them out, but WRM sound as if they have merely re-shaped theirs. They sound like Joy Division would have if they had grown up listening to Depeche Mode and Duran Duran, and Ian Curtis had been replaced with Joy Divisions drummer Stephen. So they don't really sound like JD, but you get the impression that they wish that they did.

There are moments when they shine through and create something magical, such as “Love is a Number”. It's catchier than a pirates hand, and proves that WRM can get it right! It's the New Romantic sound brought forward and up dated and it all makes perfect sense. The kids down at the front jump around like Depeche Mode or Joy Division never existed, as if WRM are the creators of a brand new sound. And they love it. But these bands did exist and because I know that, WRM will always be playing second fiddle to them.

A bit like saying that Oasis will never better The Beatles. But to some people, they do….