Rooster / The Upper Room - Manchester Apollo - 14.10.05If you needed further proof that the Britpop revival is well and truly underway you only need to look at The Upper Room. While the Kaiser's are plundering Blur's early releases for inspiration, The Kooks looking to Supergrass and Franz Ferdinand or offering arch pop ala Pulp, it seems that The Upper Room are looking to the Smith's esque tones of Martin Rossitter and Gene.
Last seen out on tour with El Presidente, this support slot with Rooster is the clearest sign that The Upper Room are too arch to market so they might as well just go and play to the masses and see what sticks. Too melodic to sit beside Interpol and the Editors, too dark to sit alongside the simplicity of the Kaiser Chiefs, frontman Alex Miller is elfin-like in his demure, somewhere between Marc Almond and Neil Tennant, while the chiming guitar riffs of James Pattinson can't help but draw comparisons to the Smiths.
"All Over This Town" is the jauntiest pop record ever to feature the lyric "The way you cheat, the way you lie, the way you want me to die". "Black And White" sounds like a cut off the classic Edwyn Collins album "Gorgeous George", "Your Body" is an awkward songs which jars cutting lyrics with a disco frenzy.
The Upper Room are band that break the rules and do it their way and if they can come across as literate in interviews as they do on record and the live shows we may just have a band that speaks for a generation rather the models haircuts for a select group of fashionistas in Hoxton.
Designer Magazine first witnessed Rooster at an HMV Showcase earlier in the year and there was something different about this band. We talked about collaborating with Jack The Ripper, Marianne Faithful moments, writing their next album in Elvis' blood and yet the media were happy to lazily compare them to Mcfly or the aural atrocity of Freefaller. Just a glance round the Apollo tonight shows that's Rooster have grown in stature to the point where their fans are as likely to read Mojo Magazine as they are Smash Hits and you can tell by the energy coming off the stage that the band themselves have grown out of the teen heartthrob status before it became the rope around their necks.
The relationship between frontman Nick Atkinson and guitarist Luke Potashnick has definitely changed since the first time we saw them. Atkinson is now happy to step out of the spotlight to allow Potashnick to unleash a beast of a guitar solo, which competes with John Squire for pure ego driven fret w*nking…. but just as it starts to drag on they come back with the huge chorus.
Older songs are taken in new directions, "Deep And Meaningless" sounds more and more like Oasis' "Stop Crying Your Heart Out" each time we hear it, "Platinum Blind" is now a full on rock song which couldn't be described pop however lazy the hack…and the new songs display a new found maturity which older bands would struggle to maintain without crossing the mature / boredom borderline. "Lady Jane", "Home" and "Good To Be Here" all hit the mark, but the influences aren't so obvious and they're definitely heading down the more straight up blues path.
It's the singles "Staring At The Sun", think Champagne Supernova meets Aerosmith, and "Come Get Some", pure Reef all the way, that the fans are waiting for and they're not disappointed as they deliver 110%.
When Rooster comeback with their second album next year it's going to surprise a lot of the doubters, to roll out an old cliché Rooster are all about the music… and if you want to f**k them it's just a bonus!!!
Words: Alex McCann
Photos: Karen McBride www.karenmcbride.com
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