Futuro
Club NME, The Arches – March 15th 2007The wonderfully atmospheric Arches plays host to the weekly Glasgow arm of Club NME, a nationwide attempt by said music mag to merge gig going and after show clubbing, with resident DJs on hand to spin the tunes as soon as the acts have vacated the stage. It’s a nifty concept, eliminating the tedium of being turfed out at the end of a gig only to queue to get back into the same venue for the club.
Tonight’s occasion is the launch of ‘Lights Out’, the new single from power pop threesome Futuro. Before the boys can show off their wares, however, early arrivals in the audience are treated to support from nicely named mentalists The Plimptons.
It’s all about the comedy with this lot, with onstage costumes running the gamut from nun to chimney sweep, and including a male bass player who was so convincing in a dress that I only realised he was a bloke after reading his name on their website after the gig.
The ramshackle Plimptons gleefully rip the proverbial pish out of a spectrum of musical styles and clichés, with a particular penchant, it seems, for poking fun at ‘Britishness’ in its various guises. It’s all good fun but, like efforts from fellow pop jesters Goldie Lookin Chain, might not hold up to repeated listens at home without the distraction of the onstage slapstick.
The supremely polished Futuro have no time for such tomfoolery, launching into their punchy set with the minimum of fuss and chat.
Not a note is wasted, with urgent riffs, angular guitar and clipped vocals drawing obvious but complimentary comparisons with The Killers, or a less arty and arch Franz Ferdinand. The three person set up naturally lends itself to their pared down approach, the restrained lead guitar and driving bass mirroring and underpinning the vocal melody rather than running off an indulgent tangent.
Futuro describe themselves as a “truly self contained unit”, handling all of their own recording, audio and video production, promotion and design. This tight knit ethos is writ large in their live performance, where their precision, professionalism and taciturn presence leave them just the right side of anal.
The only downside is that the material loses the power to surprise fairly quickly, falling neatly into the genre of terse, sparse pop rock already mined to great effect by the likes of Bloc Party and the aforementioned Killers.
Personally speaking, however, this is preferable to and less tiresome than the enforced wackiness of scamps such as The Plimptons.
‘Lights Out’ is out now, with live dates also lined up for April at Firewater, Glasgow and Carnegie Hall, Dunfermline. Check out http://www.wearefuturo.com/ for further info on the band’s quest for world domination.
Words: Annie McLaughlin
Photos: John Summers
