Futureheads Have Little Material, Lots of Show
Wednesday, February 23, 2005; Page C03
The Washington Post
For most bands headlining the 9:30 club, playing for only about 50 minutes would seem a cheat. But for the Futureheads, who performed there Monday night, it was a major accomplishment. After all, the brittle and bouncy songs of this quartet from Sunderland, England, tend to stop shy of three minutes, and the group's debut album runs out of steam in under a half hour. Bolstered by high spirits and unexpected showmanship, however, in concert the 'heads never faltered.
Inspired largely by such spry post-punk bands as XTC, the Futureheads play simple songs with clipped rhythms, quick-change chords and multiple voices.
All four band members sing, and hand off verses and choruses with wit and dispatch. Center-stage guitarist Barry Hyde was the principal vocalist, but lead guitarist Ross Millard and one-named bassist Jaff were just as likely to warble a crucial part. Rather than hog the mike, for example, Hyde stepped back and played an elementary vamp while Millard and Jaff handled the choruses of such songs as "The City Is Here for You to Use."
The band didn't merely combine a staccato attack with doo-wop harmonies and a reggae-inspired sense of musical space. It also dabbled in audience participation, which is almost always embarrassing in a rock context. Skillfully employing their amiable dispositions and exotic northeast-England accents, the musicians divided the crowd in half to sing contrapuntal vocal parts of a yipping arrangement of Kate Bush's "Hounds of Love." Any group that can pull off that kind of Pete Seeger moment while playing pogo-pop is clearly in complete control of the stage.
-- Mark Jenkins
