Thursday 20/01/05 Nine Black Alps, 22-20s @ The Irish Club, Birmingham

January 21, 2005 by Bill Bedford

Greasy Manchester youngsters Nine Black Alps are currently enjoying the kind of hype that tonight’s headliners enjoyed a couple of years ago. The headliners in question, however, Lincolnshire’s 22-20s, ought to be anxiously looking over their shoulders, because its likely that soon these pimple-picking upstarts will be a more serious proposition for the big time. Imagine every sorry bunch of teenage Nirvana wannabes you’ve ever seen, but with the subtle difference of being amazingly good, and you’ve got Nine Black Alps. Kicking off with recent release ‘Cosmopolitan’ they launch into a salvo of songs equally as immediate and arresting as the single. Their sound is derivative, not of the musical heritage of their own rainy North Western city, but that of the early nineties Seattle grunge scene. Don’t hold this against them though; the blistering live display in evidence tonight demands respect in its own right.

Like Nine Black Alps, 22-20s play powerful no-frills rock music. Unlike the support, they choose to ram raid the 60s rather than the grunge era for their supply of sonic contraband. Reheated riffs are heated once more and clichéd lyrics reign supreme (see ‘Devil in Me’ and ‘Baby Brings Bad News’). At times the lack of imagination is truly remarkable, with singer Martin Trimble even brazenly admitting, “I don’t want to modernise, and I don’t want to rearrange, I don’t want to fix up, and I don’t want to change” in ‘Hold On’. The low point comes with the trite and unnecessary acoustic interlude ‘Friends’. There are some moments of majesty, still; ‘Such a Fool’ and ‘Shoot your Gun’ are blustery, strident rockers, and the encore, a cover of Muddy Waters’ ‘King Bee’ is and exemplary way to bring the house down.

Throughout the show there appears to be a certain amount of tension between Trimble and bass fondling Laurence Llewelyn Bowen look-alike Glen Bartrup. Trimble’s irate between-song patter (“We’re going to play a song that we know now”) betrays the frosty atmosphere. The singer manages to channel this negative energy into his playing and resist the obvious temptation to take out the mincing bassist. Such disharmony is inopportune for the band at this make-or-break moment, however. As the blues bandwagon trundles out of town, and with new bands like Nine Black Alps snapping at their heels, its clear that 22-20s are going to have to raise their game or their days could be numbered.

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