Freshers week, the seven day partying extravaganza that university students relish. Any freshers week worth going to will end with a huge party with a great live band. Three years ago the University of Nottingham freshers week ended with GLC performing their satirical hip-hop. It was a fitting end to a superb week.
This year, the band featured was The Twang. I asked a few people about them; most recognised the name but couldn’t name any songs. This is despite being voted second on The BBC’s Sound of 2007 poll.
I went with slight trepidation — I mean, they were the big band at the end of the freshers week, surely the organisers would select a great band that would make people sit up and take notice?
The night ended with me leaving early and wanting my money back.
The Twang have to be one the worst live act I’ve seen for a long time, including some unsigned acts I’ve seen at local clubs. They played their two big singles, Wide Awake and Either Way which people kinda recognised. Then they just started playing one generic indie rock song after another, each so similar in style and structure that I wouldn’t have been able to tell one from the other. No character, no style and no passion.
You could see the lack of harmony with their audience, especially when the main dance floor basically thinned out to the core group of inebriated punters who probably didn’t even know who they were seeing. There was a distinct lack of atmosphere to the room, and when they finally left the stage I felt relief that a DJ would be taking over and playing some tracks I might actually enjoy listening to.
I have to admit that I’m not indie rock’s greatest advocate, I feel the genre has become far too stylised and short-sighted. But there are still bands that are able to break the mould and create something truly original (The Killers’s Hot Fuss album springs to mind), but the Twang really need to up their game if they want to stand out from the mediocrity.