Live report: Cat5 + Vapnet @ the Social, London UK 01/22/07
For the third year, 12th installment and band #22, T!T!T! rolled up its sleeves for a few rounds of world championship unadulterated pop.
The Social has a god-awful sound system, but Vapnet and a deft sound technician truly succeeded (no exaggeration: it really worked). Tonight such harmony, beautiful percussion, instrumentation, blips, squeaks, hand claps and musical widgets sufficed to proselytize all (including Pitchfork early last summer).
What effect they have: "Kalla mig" (as covered by The Sweptaways), "E14", "Prästgarden" and "Thoméegrand" (as amazing as Emmaboda's forfest rendition) which all went down like a Haggis on Burn's night! Evident from Vapnet's set: the more complex, the more prolific the execution becomes with no room to relax – six co-dependants and no heavy amplification to hide behind, are in no uncertain terms, superb.
This was Vapnet's UK debut, and Östersund's debut at T!T!T!, the very town where my own Swedish music/love affair started in 1994, she was Lena Vinger and along with Annika Norlin it was an era of Jämtlander who took 'grov snus'. Lyrics like "Du kan kalla mig bög / kall mig CP" could really never be born anywhere else.
Lest not forget T!T!T! alumni electro pop minxes Cat5 who this evening turned the crowd on in more ways than one, giving a pleasant rise the coldest of London nights this year. "Play loud", "Sexy" and new song "Boys", performed before a projection screen, strobe, smoke and rotating police light, disco ball and velvet curtain backdrop! Naughty Euro-pop kitsch, and slinky to boot.
Some said irony, from my vantage point Cat5 seemed to mean business. Actually serious enough that these girls need dancers, and straight guys throwing boxers on stage - because it's naive, brilliant gayness every time.
- Jason Christie