Midnight Juggernauts, Kid Coda Sounds, Kinevil @ The Other Rooms, Newcastle (07.10.08)

Words: Carla Washbourne
 

It is always quite shameful to be the first one on the scene at a show…. You tend to be beheld with the equally unflattering regards of unspecified voyeur or wannabe groupie. Perhaps it was to my credit that much of the nights ‘ambience’ was being supplied by a smoke machine going great-guns over the dance floor.  

Kinevil are a revelation, managing to pad out the sparsely populated venue with their acerbic, guitar-based swagger. The band are clearly tight and on-sound, but seemingly thrown by the general nonchalance; clearly the hip kids are no longer allowed to clap and the reception seems rather chilly. Tacking in a Velvet Underground cover for added buoyancy, however, seems to have the desired effect. Cue applause.  

Kid Coda (Sounds) emerge from the smoke and darkness in a muddle of static and light, bearing down upon the audience with their waves of grinding, ominous feedback. Energetic, but chilling to the core, combined with theatrical, bizarre torch installations the whole episode seems akin to a close encounter with some true electro-head extra-terrestrials.  

According to their inter-tune banter, Midnight Juggernauts have been on the road for about two years now (or it seems that way anyway) though their tireless show certainly doesn’t emulate anything of the sort. True to note, they produce the kind of sweet, uncomplicated psychedelia made newly fashionable by such cool kids as MGMT (i.e. best listened to through ‘a haircut’). The room is unfairly empty for a band of this quality, but only in their last throes do the Juggernauts see fit to beckon forward the crowd, provoking a one woman dance frenzy and slightly less obliging shufflings from the remaining punters. Capable? Yes. Loveable? Not yet, but with such stoical, diligently implemented gigs the world cannot help but fall at their feet, just perhaps not all THAT soon.