In times where scraggly guitar bands are two to a penny, it's essential to have a little something extra to set you apart from the rest. Neither Nada Surf nor John Vanderslice belie their shared style of music (somewhere near college rock) but neither are particularly adventurous with it. Sure, they're all confident musicians and performers, but neither do they do anything oustanding with their fretboards. Strip away the vocals and you're going to be left with guitar lounge music with all the excitement of the latest Paul Weller offering and all the urgency of a bus pass-clasping pensioner. That's why tonight is about more than just guitars.
Vanderslice, here on his first UK tour, is apparently a bit of a legend stateside already. He's already released five albums (two of which are available in full in mp3 on his website) but for obvious financial reasons, he's here with just a drummer, a keyboard and a guitar, two men short of his usual tally. In the face of this forced adversity however, he manages to put this sparse instrumentation to good effect with simple Death Cab For Cutie-style tones leaving the vocals to shine.
Not quite the tortured little boy squeal of Oberst, nor the recognisable abrasive gloom of Stipe, his voice touches a middle ground Meloy or Gibbard; just enough twang and fervour to keep interest. His lyrics are clever but not too much; his intelligence keeps them interesting but his sentiments aren't held back by some indecipherable code.
Nada Surf add a bass into the mix, but still manage to go through a lengthy set without exciting musically. Singer and guitarist Matthew Caws has scant reason to break sweat, let alone strings but yet the amount of visible passion he exerts is phenomenal. Constantly straining his face and vocal chords to make sure you get more for your money, he possesses the kind of voice you'd like to hear first thing in the morning; peaceful and soft. For a whole ninety minutes we see the soft side of Nada Surf, the more mature side which dominates their recently released full-length The Weight Is A Gift. Edgier material such as the sublime 'Firecracker' from The Proximity Effect is left out completely. The audience laps it up regardless, but the prevailing thought is that maybe this downwards shift in tempo is signalling the end to any hopes of witnessing them rocking out in the near future. Boys have become men and the volume has been turned down.
Tonight they play a set which would leave the casual listener far from satisfied. But this is just the next part in the Nada Surf epic story and even if they come back next time with midlife crisis suede jackets and Porsches, I'm certain that the level of adoration would not drop one bit.
