Tuesday 27 October 2009

Imperial Leisure - The Flowerpot, September 5th 2009



“MORE ME!!! MORE ME!!” Imperial Leisure’s Denis bellows into the mic, preparing to grab the attention of every crammed sardine in this tin of a venue, the Flowerpot. Pushing, shoving, skanking, jumping; the crowd are soon warmed up with the band’s chaotic fusion of ska, rock, punk and hip-hop, all blended together with a soulful latino-esque trumpet. The band play the tunes their fans love to hear: favourite ‘In A Letter’ kicks the set off comparatively dark and moody to the cheeky lyrical banter of later tracks such as Beer Belly (“Your Beer Belly’s looking like a baby but that’s fine we’re OK,”) which with its pulsating rhythm a perfect design for crowd and 7 piece band alike to lift their knees to chin level and skank like it was 1979. Frontman Denis is a charming soul, something of a children’s party entertainer with clownlike hair, and with this particular party opting for cider and lager over jelly and ice cream, he’s able to get a largely too cool for school crowd to get all sweaty in their skin tight jeans and jump around like fools, shouting ‘Hey’ and ‘Oi’ (depending on which side of the room they are on) and revel in the joys of a man in his underpants crowd surfing (mmm, nice). With half an hour gone, Denis is heard to warn his band mates that they’re set will soon be over, so they rush into the final 2 songs much to the pleasure of the fans, ‘Landlord’s Daughter’ and ‘Untouchable’. At this point I glance over at the band’s keyboardist Stu, who is now sweat –drenched, drops flying out of his mop of hair, and is looking more and more like Animal from the Muppets. He lunges at his keyboard and sings like his life depends on it. The kids all sing along too and it is at this point that you realize that you don’t really want this party to end.
Setlist:
In A Letter
Jenny
Dead Model
Sitting in the Middle
The Beast
Alperton
1st Past the Pump
Beer Belly
Great British Summertime
Man on the Street
Dance Floor
Landlord’s Daughter
Untouchable

More info on the band: