On record, The Chapman Family produce a sound akin to North-Eastern counterparts Maximo Park or The Futureheads (though coming from Stockton, TCF hail from slightly lower down the country), all jittering guitars, and repetitive, yelped choruses. Live, however, it would appear they take on a rather different tone – not exactly ‘Hounds of Love’, rather more ‘Hounds of Hell’. The four band members slunk onto the red-lit stage of The Enterprise on Monday night with posture that can only be described as sinister, ominous…I don’t even think ‘boding’ would be going too far. Boding of what? 30 minutes of brutal, utterly glorious noise, that’s what.
It was absolutely relentless. Eschewing chatter between tracks wherever they could (an approach that has lead to quite some comment on their myspace, but which I totally agreed with), ‘The Family’ created a veritable wall of visceral, feedback-imbued noise that battered the four walls of the tiny upstairs room into all kinds of musical submission. Coming on like the very best bits of The Cooper Temple Clause, yourcodenameis:milo and Sonic Youth, it was post-punk/hardcore/rock/call-it-what-you-will par excellence. Yes, they really were so good that I need to use italics.
Picking highlights in a set-list as crammed with goodies as they put on display is difficult, but I would definitely say that ‘Something I Can’t Get Out’, ‘Million Dollars’, and ‘Lies Plus Lies’ lingered longer in the memory. It was all absolutely beezer though.
Verdict:
The band’s publicity may well scream that ‘The Chapman Family is not a cult’, but that’s certainly not going to stop them creating a large following of hardcore fans who will follow them anywhere and do anything they desire. Methinks they doth protest too much...
Where Next:
Catch The Chapman Family on tour at the Freebutt in
Full Setlist (from paper on floor, so apologies for any typos):
Hear Them Marching
Lies
Something I Can’t Get Out
Sound of the Radio
You Are Not Me
Kids
Million Dollars
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