People In Planes, London 100 Club

April 7th 2009

It’s midweek and the capacity of people in the venue upon arrival well indicates that fact. The venue itself is a strange place, nice but an odd lay out. For starters there are two pillars in front of the stage that restrict the view. So unless you stand directly up against the stage (and it’s a little early for actions like these when the venue is not even half full), you are forced to choose which half of the band you want to see – the left or the right. The only other option is to lean against the pillars, but if everyone in the venue does that…..you see what we are saying, it could be awkward!

Prego are the support band tonight and do a fine job of getting the audience enthused and ready for tonight’s headliners. They have clearly brought a suitable following with them, being regulars in London and are set to make some waves in the music scene themselves. Tonight demonstrates that they can cut it live and own their stage.

By the time People In Planes take to the stage the venue is much fuller and the atmosphere has somewhat heightened. This is the last date on the UK tour and it shows, the band have perfected their set and clearly love being on stage. One of the highlights tonight has to be ‘Last Man Standing’, their last single which mildly echoes Moby’s ‘Natural Blues’ with a riff of guitar injected for good measure. This bounce along track is atmospheric and gets a good crowd reaction. Surprisingly, being the only single release thus far it does not get the best response of the night though, that is reserved for several others.

One of the liveliest and memorable tracks in the set tonight is ‘Mayday (M’aidez)’, the chorus sticks to the mind like glue. And the band work well together on stage, they gel and recreate the tracks well. The intro is dramatic and attention grabbing, working up a pace and sound that builds through the room tonight and crashes into a statement-making chorus that works so well live.

The end of the set is marked by two of tonight’s main highlights, ‘Barracuda’ and ‘Vampire’. ‘Barracuda’ was a B-side on the last single and is a lively number that swings and jolts along with odd rhymings of “scuba” and “barracuda”. But regardless of the lyrics, the song is warmly received and is clearly a fan favourite, surprising given it does not feature on their debut album Beyond The Horizon.

‘Vampire’ marks the finale with a sound that echoes debut single ‘Last Man Standing’ but has a more catchy and commercial element. The chorus builds and creates an atmospheric and deep sound that captivates the room tonight. This is by far the highlight of the evening and you can genuinely see the more sceptical of onlookers start to take notice of this track. Now, we have mentioned before the bizarre lyrical tendencies of People In Planes, with lines such as “who is the fly in your champagne?” and “You are the dog, I’m the vampire”; but fortunately the tracks seem to work better live as there is less emphasis on the lyrics, it becomes less obvious and more about the sound as a whole.

However, one thing is for certain, bands need a point of difference these days if they are going to get noticed amongst the thousands of other bands out there, so perhaps a bizarre lyric or two thrown in here and there are exactly what People In Planes need to get noticed…