I am more than two weeks late with this post, humble apologies to everyone who played. But I am old school and write my notes in a paper notebook. Said notebook was misplaced, but now I have found it! This was to be the first time I had seen GOO and who would turn down the chance to see a band with such a great name? Certainly not me. But before I tell you about GOO, let me tell you about the first support band. They are a classy four piece band called Juku which according to my limited knowledge is a Japanese word meaning a school offering intensive education outside normal school hours. Juku are the new band formed by Dan and Naomi who are the duo that made the Snakerattlers such a great musical force. This is quite a change of direction for the Snakerattlers pair and they have created an immense new sound. I found them reminiscent of some of the finest 90s female fronted bands such as Lush and Elastica. I had to agree with Mr. Tuke on that point. Whilst they reminded me of those great 90s bands Juku have a much harder, punkier edge to them. I guess that the lack of interaction with the audience was deliberate, after all their socials are clear in their REJECT FAME message. It certainly added some mystique to a band that is hard, dark, deep and frankly simply fucking awesome! Such a great set despite Naomi suffering from a cold!
While the poster shows GOO as headliners they played second rather than last. This is done as a means of keeping punters in the venue when a band that is new to York plays at the Fully. What, sadly, often happens is that people come to see “their” band and then fuck off somewhere else and miss the headliners. Personally that kind of behaviour pisses me off, but hey if that’s what people want to do then fuck ’em! Keighley band GOO have endless, boundless energy and a bag, that might be deeper than Mary Poppins’ bottomless carpet bag, loaded with great songs. If you put Bis, Garbage and the Eels (when Mark Everett is in a happy mood) into a huge melting pot and then add some 21st century Beach Boy style harmonies then GOO would be the result if the pot was simmered over a light pop punk heat for an hour. The band were clearly having fun and smiling became infectious while listening to them. Later in their set they showed their versatility with a shift to a majestic post punk sound that evoked the sound of early and very raw Blondie. The lead guitarist has a latent talent for adding a gorgeous vein of classic rock vibes to the band’s sound. “Call In Sick” is wonderfully warped, weird and wacky with a chorus that I am still singing in my head two weeks after the gig!
Suspicious Liquid closed the show. They are a very talented York Uni band with an incredible guitarist in Danny Durie and vocalist Vanessa Toyn’s voice is spot on. Her singing made me think of what might happen if you spliced the voice of Siouxse Sioux and Dolly Parton and sent them in a psych punk direction. The vocal washed across the venue in a proggy, punky heavenly projection. Their cover of Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit” was operatic and outstanding. Suspicious Liquid are often epic, cinematic , anthemic and at times mesmerising. I have one small criticism, on some of the earlier songs Stephen seemed to be playing a different tune. I am not sure whether that was a sound issue or not. The highlight for me was their amazing cover of Frank Zappa’s “Muffin Man”. I had heard them play this at last years Battle Of The Bands contest at this venue. Covering Zappa takes skill and guts and oh boy did they pull it off with this take of one of my favourite Zappa tunes. Their closing song (which might have been called “Shadow Boxing”) was spilling over with finely balanced emotion and had the whole band on their best form of the night. I felt that this was a set that began without a great spark, but they warmed up and by the end they had lit their own musical Olympic torch!
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