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Veronica Falls
Brudenell Social Club, Leeds/Touring
Monday 11 March 2013
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Email"We can play one or two songs," remarks guitarist James Hoare as Veronica Falls start to wrap up their encore.
This could be a comment on the amount of time the London quartet have before the sound is pulled.
More worryingly, it could be a statement on the number of tunes in their repertoire.
It's little wonder that bassist Marion Herbain spends the entire time looking bored, given that she seems to play the same notes, in the same order, on every song of the hour-long set.
Their signature track variously sounds like Lush tuning up with Joy Division - Teenage and Right Side Of My Brain - or The B-52's Rock Lobster pogo dancing to Best Coast in a '60s garage disco on Broken Toy and Wedding Day.
It's a limitation that ill serves their recently released second album Waiting For Something To Happen, which is a joyful blend of old school indie.
Sharing the boy-girl vocals of Hoare and co-guitarist Roxanne Clifford, it's a cute C-86 selection box of nostalgic reference points for people of a certain generation.
Sadly, when translated into the live arena there's an emotional disconnect with the listener.
This means that there are only occasional flurries of that innocent joy.
Recent single Tell Me manages to stand out with its confident cribbing of the guitar solo from Television's Marquee Moon.
But elsewhere their black costumed, dry ice-friendly stage presence needs addressing if the exuberance of their studio self is to be translated live.
Touring nationally, details: veronicafalls.com.
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