Good Shoes appear to be adored already. They’ve gone from playing small Barfly shows earlier this year, to Kings College Students Union with no album (out next year apparently) but a loyal fanbase. The Myspace phenomenon? A sign of their quality? The power of the NME? Ceratinly the crowd tonight knew a lot of the words to most of the songs, which probably means they’re doing something right.
They look good and young too. Remember when Oasis first started out, and Liam wore stupid anoraks and Noel looked like the council estate kid who got bullied? Wicked. But then they went and got all famous and subsequently all nice and trendy. Bands look cool when they look like shit. That’s why people who dress like bands look like wankers. Good Shoes are all ripped jeans, high-topped Nikes, ill-fitting t-shirts, detached hoods on heads - and they look ace. Shabby as hell.
They sound good too. Testament to the venue no doubt and a certain professionalism from the band – to the extent that lead singer Rhys Jones meekly suggested that stage-divers stage-dive either side of his microphone so as not to upset the sound. That’s correct, there were stage divers. I ain’t seen that shit since Nirvana. Good shoes, of course, sound nothing like Oasis or Nirvana, but like Gang Of Four, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and The Libertines.
The guitars (Steve Leach) are all sketchy scrambled and urgent, the bass (Joel Cox) a perennial pounding, the drumming (Tom Jones) is fast, frantic punky, and the vocals have an impressive, shouty Mark E Smith quality to them complete with in-decipherable lyrics. A lot of bands are indulging in this new-wave post-punk shenanigans, and some do it much better than others. These chaps do it well, and they know it. That’s why they look like shit see, no need to be hyper-trendy yet, still got the tunes to get them through. That can all wait until they’ve sold their first coupla’ hundred thousand records.
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