The Ghost Frequency Live :: Wessex Scene Online

The Ghost Frequency Live

14th November 2008
Dan Sumner

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Oct 08 - Subhumans Live
Nov 08 - Sonic Boom Six Live
Nov 08 - The Streets Live
Nov 08 - Foals Live
Nov 08 - Cyndi Lauper, Southampton Guildhall

More by Dan Sumner

Jan 09 - New Found Glory, Southampton Guildhall
Nov 08 - Kaiser Chiefs - Off With Their Heads

Ghost Frequency hit the Talking Heads, Southampton 9th Oct 2008

There’s only one way to describe a ghost frequency gig: carnage. So you can imagine my delight at being offered the chance to go catch possibly one of the most underrated and best live acts to have come out of London in the last five years at local Southampton venue, the Talking Heads.

The night started off slowly with two support bands, both claiming to have played under five shows each and with non existent crowd participation, but as soon as the lights dimmed for the last band of the evening the venue exploded into a mass of sweaty bodies and flailing arms and legs.

The ghost frequency themselves, chose to open with recent addition to their Myspace page ‘Karma Cries the Trials’, which is probably the weakest song in their catalogue, but still made a very crowd pleasing opener, and made even more pleasing by the fact that front man Doran was leaping wildly into the air and crowd at every given opportunity, almost as if possessed.

As the synth driven electronic rock continued, the pace of the set did not let up with early track “We were computers,” being thrown in for good measure. As the crowd began to slow up, “Nightmare”, The Ghost Frequency’s most successful song to date was launched into the mix with a devastatingly good response from the crowd.

Twenty minutes and seven or eight crowd dives later from Doran, ‘Never before have I seen a man who looks exactly like a skeleton’ was belted out with furious anger and with a new danceable rhythm and also with a little bit of help from yours truly. Well I say help, more like a little bit of a shout.

As the lights went down for the last time, it almost looked as if that would be it, until the familiar chant of ‘We threw money on the fire just to keep the fire alive’ not only blew the already strained PA into a pulp but also served as a catalyst for the destruction that was about to occur. With a lead singer climbing up the windows and with a lead guitarist writhing around on the floor in a bloody mess it was clear that there was no longer anything more that The Ghost Frequency could give, and as the set disappeared and the band went back to their dwellings in the upstairs of the venue, the crowd screamed for more, but unfortunately for us, there was no more.

Tonight surely did belong to The Ghost Frequency and I don’t think anyone was disappointed. With such electronically driven catchy songs, its no wonder The Ghost Frequency were Hadouken’s main support on their last tour and I’d be amazed if they weren’t playing somewhere like the London Astoria in a years time, but the music industry is a fast moving machine nowadays so unfortunately, in this reporters eyes, The Ghost Frequency may never get a chance to impress big audiences like they did with the small crowd at the Talking Heads.