Band past its prime bores Roxy’s crowd

Band past its prime bores Roxy’s crowd

By Brian Remick

Though they present themselves as an "escape from grunge," the
Lightning Seeds’ on-stage presence lacks so much excitement that
Alice In Chains seems intoxicating by comparison.

Promoting its new album, Jollification, the Lightning Seeds
played last Wednesday to a diverse Roxy crowd, ranging from eternal
fans who knew the words to every song to people who just came off
Sunset Boulevard to see what all the noise was inside.

The music of the Lightning Seeds simply does not sound good
live, mostly due to the band’s dull and mediocre on-stage presence.
This is not to say that they are not excellent musicians, but
rather that they do not have the charisma to hold the attention of
an audience.

The band opened with the classic "All I Want," bringing back the
traditional sound that made the band sort-of well-known. Ian
Broudie’s guitar melodies still sounded great, five years after the
band started.

Broudie continued the set with a few songs from the new album,
and a new song called "How," which combines a powerful bass line
with great chord progressions.

The crowd at the Roxy seemed very mellow. There were a few
people right in front of the stage who cheered and danced through
every song, but most either bobbed their heads in unison or sat at
the tables in the back.

"If you feel the urge to move around a little bit, feel free,"
Broudie said in his tenor British accent. But, his futile plea had
no impact on the stubborn crowd.

Broudie ended the set with the hit "Pure," which seemed to
lighten up the crowd a little bit ­ enough, anyway, to produce
sufficient applause for an encore. The show concluded with
"Marvelous," another classic tune that shows the power of their
synth-pop style.

The Lightning Seeds didn’t seem too excited about being at the
Roxy. Broudie mostly stood on stage and played his guitar, while
the other members of the band were a bit more lively. The
performance was still solid and well-done but definitely not very
memorable.

The show opened with a new acoustic band called the Murmurs, who
seemingly were not used to playing in front of people. "OK ­
nobody get nervous," said the lead vocalist and guitarist, as the
duo took the stage. The band’s fresh acoustic sound is becoming
more popular, but its performance was just really bad.

After the guitarist’s string broke, they stared at each other in
shock; things were pretty much over. "What ­ are you havin’ a
cup of tea or somethin’?!?" the vocalist screamed at the guitarist
after their worst nightmare came to life. "My string broke," she
replied. How’s that for spontaneity?

The problem with the Lightning Seeds is that the synth-pop scene
is just not appealing anymore to the majority of music fans. The
music itself hasn’t changed, but the listeners have matured. Groups
like Depeche Mode, New Order and the like that were huge in the
early ’80s have dropped in popularity, leaving bands like the
Lightning Seeds, who were never very popular to begin with, in the
dust. They had their best shot at success a few years ago with the
release of CloudCuckooland, but for some reason, the success never
came.

On Wednesday night, the Lightning Seeds showed a certain loyalty
to its style that is quite admirable, if not a little hopeless.