The Research, Das Wanderlust, Sunday School Adventure Club @ The Cumberland Arms, Newcastle (21.10.08)

Words: Carla Washbourne

We have been waiting with baited breath for this long awaited gig to drop and in true Cuckoo’s Nest style even a frigid Tuesday night in Newcastle can turn in to a feast of gifts, cake and platinum standard music.

The Sunday School Adventure Club really are a whole different bag of Indie. Though their music is quite clearly built around a skeleton of popular indie influences of the Belle and Sebastian ilk, the sheer orchestration that takes place onstage is quite another matter, with glockenspiel and woodwind transporting the pounding guitar to an entirely new plateau.

Das Wanderlust are irrefutably wonderful. They make pop music alright, but pop music at twice its usual tempo, fronted by a frenetic vocalist; projecting screeches in a manner akin to the more peculiar leanings of Metric’s Emily Haines. Caustic yet charming, complex yet innately childish – Das Wanderlust manage the difficult task of producing smart music which you can still dance your cares away to.

The Research are an unassuming bunch, taking quietly to the stage armed with the knowledge of perennial gems such as ‘She’s the One I Love’ being at their beck and call. Sadly, whilst The Research do produce glorious, carefully crafted and gently proffered masterpieces, they simply don’t live up to the colourful variety of the prior acts. Their set is accomplished, their three piece melodies licking around our semi-frozen hearts, but ultimately a little anticlimactic.