Faint Praise for Faint :: Wessex Scene Online

Faint Praise for Faint

28th May 2003
Kerry Patterson

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Jan 03 - THE FAINT Danse Macabre (City Slang)
May 03 - Motorcycle Emptiness
Jul 03 - Aqualung plays first home gig for charity.
Mar 03 - Kills and Spills
Jan 08 - Gig: Bloc Party at Alexandra Palace

More by Kerry Patterson

Aug 05 - I am Kloot - Over my shoulder
Oct 03 - Mew Art Riot

THE FAINT

Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms. Monday 31st March

I have never been a fan of drum machines in a live arena and support band Scarlet Soho remind me why.

Their music is quite raw and punky, in a strictly 80s sense, raising a smile with the frontman Jim lyric-nicking from the likes of New Order and S Club Juniors (classic). However, the drum-machine (although sounding bitchin’ on a stereo) smoothes out their appealing roughness like a bottle of Pantene on split-ends, and restricts them from bringing new life to their live set as they often fall out of time with the beat.

Having danced like a loon in the privacy of my own home to the Faint’s recent offering, Danse Macabre, I am in high spirits at the prospect of dancing to it live. The Faint are a very satisfying fusion of rock, a smattering of metal and a heavy dose of electronica, with a drummer and a drum-machine. As they take to the stage I look around me and I’m surprised to find a very empty hall behind me.

The numbers are disappointing but the boys from Omaha still go for it, opening with the glam-rock stomping of Glass Danse, and it’s hard to fight the itch to dance like mad. They follow that up with the robotic undulations of Let the Poision Spill From Your Throat. Eager for punters to be familiar with their back catalogue (or perhaps just letting us know they’re not a new band) The Faint also play a lot of material from 2nd album Blank Wave Arcade which is alright, but strangely enough doesn’t get much response from the crowd. However, most of the other tracks are real crowd-pleasers as The Faint perform some of the best songs from Danse Macabre, like The Conductor (George Bush, apparently), Agenda Suicide which is actually killing itself on MTV as we speak, and the fantastic Posed to Death with its breathy vowel sounds. High voltage, indeed.

As individuals doing their thang, The Faint are compelling and, quite frankly, sexy, what with the penchant for back-to-front haircuts and freaky dances. In particular, I am hooked by the angular jerking movements of Jacob behind his keyboard, which he leaves occasionally to weave amongst the other members. Dapose is simmering behind his fringe, and Joel grins cheekily through his. Yes, these guys are positively smouldering. But Portsmouth isn’t their niche, they’d be better off suited to playing to the we’re-on-the-cutting-edge-of-fashion-darling set of London town. Although I fear the meaning of the excellent Your Retro Career Melted will be lost on most of them.