The Wave Pictures / Bishi
Corsica Studios, November 27th

(So, Plan B asked me today to write a last minute review of the Wave Pictures and Bishi at a gig they promoted at Corsica Studios last month. The extraordinary David Thomas Broughton was headlining, but I guess someone else is writing about him. My assigned word count was pretty short, but since this blog’s been a bit starved of content recently, I thought I’d share the full, uncut version with you.)

I love a bit of sitar. So Bishi’s determination to bend one to the whims of Western harmony, mixing up British folk, DIY songcraft and multi-ethnic dance-pop with wide-eyed stage school enthusiasm, proves hard not to love, even if a few of her songs are somewhat less than earth-shattering. She wears a miniature black top hat on the side of her head, looking like a committee-approved Slash for a happier 21st century. “Won’t keep the rain off, will it?” says one more cynical than I.

Those boys in The Wave Pictures sure know how to network. And they sure know how to beat out their homemade confections of perfect melody and wonky emotional intent with a rare conviction. But beyond the patronage of assorted Dunes, Lewis’s and Darnielles, beyond the rocking guitar solos (for which top marks), something has always stood in the way of my really loving them. I think it must be the lyrics. Whenever the logic of a song calls upon them to drag out some grand truth for the chorus line to make us go “yeah!”, instead they were always singing about, I dunno, apples or some shit. I don’t get it man. I don’t care about apples. Tonight I do get it through, and I do care about them. I think the band have been growing into themselves as songwriters and performers over the past year or so, and in return I’ve been getting comfortable with what they do, starting to appreciate the crazy, self-referential romanticism hidden behind their apples. Then their new songs scuttle up to me sideways, like a crab, and knock me flying. Why is watching these three shy, scruffy boys sing earnest songs about their personal lives so exciting? To answer that question would probably get back to the heart of why I’ve paid £5 to listen to some music in a warehouse in Elephant & Castle on a weekday evening, why I’m writing a little bit about it for a magazine, why I lock the front door behind me in the morning and immediately jam in my earphones. To answer that question would be, like, a book proposal at the very least. Anyway, yeah – exciting, and good. David Tattersal even rocks out on a ukulele, as will David Thomas Broughton later the same evening. What the hell is going on? I thought I hated ukuleles.

Assorted Wave Pictures Mp3s.

Some videos from the Corsica Studios gig.

Labels: Bishi, live reviews, The Wave Pictures