The Felt Tips – Live, Cabaret Voltaire Edinburgh, Friday 25th January 2008
It’s going to be something of a short review, this, and also serve as an intro to the band. Cabaret Voltaire are seriously making an effort to improve the quality of live music in Edinburgh, and their Duty Free gigs are absolutely excellent.
The Felt Tips actually released a single on Cloudberry Records last year and although that is sold out, the band have some of their own copies available via their MySpace page. Given the pop perfection of Boyfriend Devoted, the title track of the single, and the equal excellence of Treat Me Gently I can highly recommend it.
Purveying a sort of sugar-sweet indie pop of the light and dreamy variety, they may not blow anyone’s sock off, but they make immensely enjoyable music. They actually started the gig a couple of men short, when the drummer and bass guitarist got stuck on the train coming through from Glasgow, but the remaining members dealt with this with great equanimity and I really don’t think anyone minded. Things like this can improve a gig in a sense – instead of a shiny Top of the Pops performance you get to see more of their actual personalities, which I like.
In any case, the rest of the gig went off well. I didn’t fall for every song, but there was a lot about their music which I really liked. I reckon if they can match the heights of the two aforementioned tracks consistently then they will be well on the way.
The Felt Tips – Boyfriend Devoted
