Tuesday 23/11/04 Moving Units @ High Voltage, The Roadhouse, Manchester

Touring the toilet venues of the UK in order to shift units, if you will, of their debut album 'Dangerous Dreams', Moving Units are causing a stir, if a little one, around the country. Unfortunately, tonight the band do not impress the crowd with their sparkling wit, in fact, they don’t say anything, at all. Racing through their set with angry looks and quirky dance moves doesn’t seem to be quite enough. The rest of the somewhat small crowd are lapping it up but I can’t help feel a bit disappointed with the whole shebang. The songs are incredibly samey, the show lacks enthusiasm and the last song…two minutes of Sonic Youth-ish noise and fretwankery…is more of an afterthought than a climatic show closer. Nevertheless, the renditions of tracks off the self titled EP get the crowd up on their dancing feet and there is no doubt about the fact that the members of the band are accomplished musicians. Maybe I want for too much from the next big thing, maybe straightforward gigs have become too, well, straightforward. Enigmatic frontmen/women are certainly the way forward and if you ain’t got one I’m not watching, Moving Units don’t, by the way.

 

Moving Units then, going to be big next year as part of a massive post-punk-funk-noise-mongering posse of boys and girls despite being, well, a bit boring. You will love them and liking them will make you cool. Which is what it’s all about, isn’t it?