infomachine

As these things so often go, we ended up not going to see Rolo Tomassi on Wednesday, but going to see Munch Munch at City Screen Basement Bar instead. This occurred mainly through the fact that we were slightly put off Rolo Tomassi by the quality of the support acts. Conversely, the support acts for Munch Munch were not too bad, opening with a guy playing some pretty competent instrumental folk on his acoustic, if perhaps for a little too long, and then with a pretty impressive “funky hardcore” band, kind of a cross between the Beastie Boys when they play instruments and Red Hot Chilli Peppers (as you may be able to tell, I forgot to get the names of both of these acts, so, if anyone knows them, let me know and I’ll give better credit).

But the big reason we were there was for Munch Munch, three guys and a girl from Bristol playing three keyboards, two drumkits, a glockenspiel, and some maracas. And if you think the “lots of keyboards plus drums” thing makes them sound a little bit like Hot Chip, I’d say you were right: Hot Chip, but without that inhumanly perfect thing that Hot Chip do (which I love, but that’s another story), leaping between electro rhythms, semi-acoustic bits, massive breakbeat influenced drums, etc, with some impressively lo-fi vocals thrown over the top. Basically, it got both the nerdified indie heads and the hardcore dance ravers in the audience dancing in a scarily similar manner. And they gave my friend a badge to replace the one he lost, so they’re also lovely people.

Check out the video for Munch Munch’s Celebrity Engine here