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By John Burns, Saturday 16th December 2006 04.48pm (2432 views)
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THE HORRORS @ Satan's Hollow
Date: 10th December 2007
Support: Guests
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You couldn’t hope to find a more appropriate venue for The Horrors gothic shenanigans than Satan’s Hollow. The sight of a giant fibreglass devil hanging ominously over the DJ booth may not be everyone’s cup of tea but to the punters making their way up the dusty stone steps at the entrance it makes a welcome change from the freezing Manchester night outside. Watching a band at Satan’s is always an interesting proposition, but once you’ve got over the garish décor and the fact that the band play from the centre of the venue with the audience arranged around the edge, there’s no doubt that Satan’s Hollow is one of the best, most atmospheric underground venues in the city.
And so The Horror’s take the stage amidst a squalling tide of noise and pulsating strobe lights; the diminutive figure of a drummer hunches over his kit and begins to tap out a simple rhythm before launching into a tempo more suited to drum ‘n’ bass or techno that punk pop, sending the assembled crowd into a frenzy and the BPM meter off the scale. Front-man Faris Badwan, contorts himself around the circular stage, as if straining to avoid the angular shapes of noise and light coming at him from all directions. Keyboard player Spider Webb thrashes, pokes, slaps and strokes the keys; one moment coaxing the music, the next wrenching the notes from deep within the depths of his hell itself.
The audience keep dancing away, while some of the female fans at the front claw at Faris’ skinny legs in fits of adulation. Even the solitary crowd-surfer forward rolling his way over the barrier and landing in a heap on the monitors, cannot distract them from the object of desires. This is not to say that the sight of the massive Badwan towering over his audience isn’t impressive, from his position upon the barrier he resembles a rake thin Robert Smith, or maybe a living Brandon Lee, either way he has the audience eating out of the palm of his hand. The Horrors have touched upon something here, but its not satanic invocation as they may have us believe, nor is it a tour through vast, undulating sonic sound-scapes, it is instead just the basic principle of rock and roll, the art of having a good time. The
Horrors are too much like cartoons to be truly scary and, despite the recent spreads in the NME concerning the more violent aspect of their persona, they are simply a dark feel good band, aimed at all those “alternative” people who need to blow off a little steam and have fun.
As The Horror’s short set comes to a close and the venue empties, we’re all thinking the same thing; “strobe lights are awesome… and the Horrors are pretty cool as well”.
For more information you can visit: http://www.thehorrors.co.uk/
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