Crud World Domination Enterprises give you AKIRA THE DON
TECHNOCRATS
BRAVE CAPTAIN
The Victoria Hotel. Menai Bridge
10.05.06
(review by neil crud, pics by ste sync)
This BBC Radio Wales broadcast was more like a showcase for
the musical dignitaries of the Bangor area, rather than a gig so to speak. With
advertising only through the host, Adam Walton’s show after 10pm on a Sunday
night and on this website, it was only those who listen or read who are going
to show up. This was perhaps an opportunity to exercise old-skool tactics of
using the local press and fly posting – both of which would’ve brought far more
punters to a not-so regular venue. Let’s face it, star studded and pedigree are
words allowed when mentioning this show.
The 60 or so faces in the crowd included members of Ectogram, The Hollow,
Kentucky AFC, Alien Matter, Skinflick, MC Saizmundo, Inferno, Sons of Selina
and they/we were all treated to an opening set from Brave Captain.
Martin Carr has that pedigree of being an ex-Boo Radley; the scousers who were
sort of in the boat just behind the tidal wave that was Brit Pop. He relocated
from the promised land to Cardiff and I must’ve chosen all the wrong songs to
randomly download off his website. Expecting a chilled out, ambient
performance, this was an unusual set up with Martin on noisy loud guitar, a
tall bassist with a distortion pedal, a drummer playing to a kick track who hit
out with pure conviction and 2 one handed keyboard players (for some reason).
The songs were good, which is about the extent of my hayfever addled vocabulary
today! You can download Brave Captain’s album for free from their/his website –
bet I get there before you…
We were then subjected to a set by the Acid Casuals,
or a hybrid of them called Technocrats. Being a BBC event this was free
admission, but we still felt short changed when the entertainment was someone
walking on pushing a button to start the half hour mix and walking off. You
could say that The Killers and Green Day play in Bar Blu in Rhyl every
Wednesday because the DJ plays their CDs – this was the same thing and pretty
pointless for a ‘live’ show.
Maybe it was the intention to simmer the crowd down before
the advent of Akira The Don. He gave us a little taster when he joined
Brave Captain for their penultimate song, and the Martin Carr association was
wholly evident as he took his place behind the keyboards for Akira’s set. A computer,
a guitarist and co-girl vocalist complimented this Anglesey
rapper/crapper/madman/pure entertainer. Listening to him being interviewed a
while ago on Adam’s show, I envisaged this half-caste dude draped in gold and
shades, so it was quite a contrast to see Akira (also called Adam) return to
his roots from Cardiff being small, white with long blond and pink hair and a
Van Dyke goatee to boot. It’s a pity I’m out of the country when the show is
broadcast on Sunday night as it’ll be interesting to see how the Beeb cope with
Akira’s colourful language. I’ve said before that radio is the last bastion of
broadcasting decency. You can hear and see the word Cunt on telly after 9pm,
but you say Shit or anything coarser on the radio and Mrs Whitehouse will be back
from the dead to haunt you (in an Offcom kinda way). So when Akira starts
singing about his Dad being a Banker and then you put your fingers in your
mouth, stretch your lips and it becomes ‘wanker’ then its gonna make easy
listening. The song about AIDS was incredible, in fact the whole set was just
that – incredible, incendiary, wholly entertaining and would have for sure
converted a lot of people tonight. I’ve always associated ‘rap’ with boys from
the hood putting caps in each other’s arses (sorry, asses) but this is
different, this is better, this was Akira The Don.
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