TONIGHT IN MANCHESTER: We Were Promised Jetpacks

Fiery young Scots rockers (no clichés here) We Were Promised Jetpacks play The Roadhouse tonight – highly recommended if you haven’t seen them live.

I first saw them supporting Frightened Rabbit at Night and Day last year and was impressed by the energetic delivery and the remarkably finished sound they had for a then-unsigned band. Unsurprisingly they were picked up by Fat Cat (home of fellow travellers Frightened Rabbit and The Twilight Sad) and the release of their album “These Four Walls” followed in June this year. The album didn’t quite capture my imagination in the same way as the live performance – putting these songs on tape seemed to restrain them too much? But it garnered some good write-ups in the broad-sheets:

"They’ve already perfected a sound that sits between post-punk and pop, soaring choruses saved from over-sentimentality by stark, even bleak verses." The Independent '5 bands to watch'

"Quiet Little Voices is a rousing, sinewy, post-punk romp that crashes its way towards a Wedding Present-style duelling guitars denouement." The Guardian

The album is available digitally or on CD/LP from Fat Cat. If you don’t want to make that commitment so early in your relationship with WWPJ, a good introduction is the double-A side single released next Monday (30 November): ‘It's Thunder And It's Lightning / Ships With Holes Will Sink’. The first of these is the fine lead-off track for the album: a barn-storming performance welding raw lyrical vulnerability to huge rugged guitar riffs and by-the-end pained howls of singer Adam Thompson. Or maybe see them live? Advance tickets for tonight's Roadhouse gig are available here.


(And more videos from last week's sold-out Borderline gig from babz54321 here).

Remaining dates in Liverpool, Sheffield and Glasgow this week and then WWPJ join Frightened Rabbit for the Edinburgh Hogmanay celebrations. European dates in January 2010 follow.

ROLL UP YOUR SLEEVES
We Were Promised Jetpacks
These Four Walls [BUY]