Credit: Found On Internet

Supported by: Mumm-Ra
Camden Barfly
06/04/06

“Levi’s One To Watch” – how considerate of the global jeanswear behemoth to come save us from ourselves. As part of an ongoing campaign to “search for the authentic sounds of tomorrow”, tonight they’ve rubberstamped Bexhill on Sea’s Mumm-Ra and Southend’s grammatically irritatingly monikered Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly for our enjoyment.

First off though, Bexhill-on-Sea’s Mumm-Ra have a chance to try to capitalise on the packed crowd. With a sound that falls halfway between the flicky hairstyles of Bloc Party and the vocal hooks of the Mystery Jets, songs like The Sick Deal mean they deserve some kudos for reasons other than their glorious name.

Unfortunately for the band, they can’t seem to be able to call upon the Ancient Spirits of Evil to transform their sedate form to Mumm-Ra, rock-band extraordinaire. They don’t seem to be able to make their mind up if they want to rock out like an undead cosmic sorcerer or mopey-shoegaze like a just-dumped pretty boy. Even taking the Barfly’s tiny stage into account, half the band move like animatronic dolls.

And frontman, James New, is just trying too hard. It looks so forced, so much like how he thinks rock’n’roll ought to be, rather than any innate rock power.

But any and all of Mumm-Ra’s alleged faults pale when paired with that of the headliner’s. Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly are the focus of tonight’s little bash. With the ink on his contract with Atlantic records still only a couple of weeks’ wet, it’s rammed to the rafters with name-droppers, liggers, scene-surfers and the usual rag-tag low-level pseudo-underground media-types. And some woman from hit 40UK.

It started off like that horrific Santana / Rob Thomas collaboration, only without any Santana. And, if you can credit it, it got worse.

If someone ripped off Jamie Callum’s face and stapled it on to the corpse of Daniel Powter, and animated in an arcane ritual involving the blood of a dozen emo virgin cutters, then you might get an aberration like Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly’s Sam Duckworth.