Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff
Fri 1 Mar
words: JUSTIN EVANS photo: LOCAL SPORTS TEAM
★★★★☆
Not only a great evening, but one hosted by a computer voice with a German accent. The name of this night refers to February’s run of Kraftwerk concerts in London, which sold out almost instantly and left thousands of fans wanting; impressively, this assortment of cover versions by local acts sold out itself a few days in advance.
Daniele, who organised this night, featured in the groups which tackled Neon Lights and Autobahn; the inclusion of violin in the former was an impressive addition. Spencer McGarry and his group were next, and deftly worked through Hall Of Mirrors and Showroom Dummies; voice and synths were complementary, and introduced the concept of fragility to Kraftwerk’s songs. The apparent family band (mum, dad, two kids) which followed had a couple of problems, though most audience members were supportive and willed them along.
Quiet Marauder were excellent. On their first number Radioactivity, Francesca seemed ready to pass out through her lung-testing performances on both trumpet and melodica; Simon’s Syd Barrett-esque vocals and Jonny’s vocal synthesizer were both in fine fettle. Numbers added some Welsh-language counting to the original German, to mark St David’s Day, which was well-received as one might have expecte. Closing with The Man Machine was the cue for Jemma Roper and her band to take up the challenge of performing The Model; they proved up to task, giving a good showing before finishing with The Telephone Call.
Cardiff’s Local Sports Team were next, decked out in made-for-the-occasion Hardwerk t-shirts. For Pocket Calculator, keyboardist Shane supplied the majority of the vocals, prior to renditions of The Robots and Trans-Europe Express. ‘Hardwerk’ was a justified slogan, it turned out: LST didn’t let up for a minute. Drummer David Roberts’ vocal was as unwavering as ever, Andy Regan got busy on a variety of synths and bassist Tomos Jones was a lynchpin too.
The aforementioned Autobahn provided a rousing closer and an excellent full stop to the evening. It’s all left me wondering: who’d be up for doing a 2-Tone/ska evening along the same lines?
