CHARLIE BOYER AND THE VOYEURS

Start The Bus, Bristol | May 28th

Heavenly Recordings are on one hell of a roll right now, and it continued unabated with Charlie Boyer and The Voyeurs’ set at Start The Bus. 

There are plenty of comparisons made between this band and a fictional CBGB’s ‘scene’ in which it’s assumed The Velvets and The Ramones were all best friends and stayed in a derelict tenement building along with David Byrne and Television; the reality is that Charlie Boyer and The Voyeurs don’t really sound like any of those acts. They are a band whose admittedly derivative nature never borders on pastiche, and tonight they powered through a set that was no one else’s but their own.

With a slightly irksome nonchalance, the band are one of few words, saying little if anything throughout their short set. Considering their shy tranquillity between songs, the band’s live set is surprisingly raucous; the organ, lead vocal and drums dominated the mix, creating a fizzing, yelping cacophony which showed very little let up in pace. The thin crowd enraptured from the off, there was a comparative lack of movement onstage, with the band adopting a Bill Wyman no-movement policy for the most part. Nonetheless they made for an impressive sight, stony gazes and dandified clothing counteracting their raw garage rock nicely.

Be Nice, Clarietta and Things We Be stood out well, the former gaining particular ferocity live. The set was in keeping with their debut album: concise, excellent and showing rare marriage of style and substance. Somewhat derivative, yes, but when it’s done this well who cares?

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facebook.com/CharlieBoyerandTheVoyeurs

Words: Jon Clark