One Minute Silence - Manchester MDH - 29.11.01
We really need bands like One Minute Silence right now. For far too long rock music has rested on its laurels and risked parodying itself with talks of satanic rituals and walking through to the dark side. When a band is prepared to talk about real issues and real problems going on right now on this planet we really should stand up and listen and with frontman Yap offering more than a few cliched soundbites its obvious its more than just cheap marketing scheme. Backed up tonight in Manchester by the fantastic Sugarcoma, who if they keep plugging away could really make an major impact next year, and also the over-rated and completely tuneless Will Haven.
As Yap has said many times before the live shows really are about working your audiences and tonight not a spek on the floor is left unmoshed. Tonight the politics take a back seat and that's the secret to the band success. You can sit at home studying the lyrics which lead you onto authors such as Naomi Klein or Noam Chomsky or you can simply come out to see one of Britain's hardest working rock bands and just get wasted. Musically its not to far from the rap / rock blue print but its definitely more Dust Junkies and Rage then Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park.
Britain seems to be going through a renaissance of rock with OMS at the top of the pack and the likes of Hundred Reasons, Raging Speedhorn and Rachel Stamp not far behind. At a time when OMS are at the peak of their career, both creatively and as a live force, if feels like they really can reach the audience they deserve. A tour in February supporting shock rockers Slipknot should see them gain new fans while being let go by V2 records may turn out to be a blessing in disguise.
Alex McCann