Review - The Borderline, London - by Carrie Bailey

Advertising your night using another band's old album cover is always a risky business. Advertising using a Nirvana cover however can be near suicidal. Not only do you have the potential repercussions of hard-out Nirvana fans pummelling your site for plagiarism, but you also run the risk of insinuating that you lack the talent or motivation to develop your own persona. So it was with some curiosity and more than a little trepidation that I made the journey to The Borderline to see the relatively unknown band Bauer play.

I say relatively as past gigs that included supporting Snow Patrol and The Ordinary Boys would have generated a fairly consistent fan base. Opinions aside, they are big well-known bands and anyone accompanying them on stage would have gone through a fairly substantive interview process. However, despite past successes, Bauer have not actually managed to break through to global recognition…..and should they?

As Mikey Guitar and Greg Mathews took to the stage, my initial reservations seemed to be swept aside by the sounds of an expertly crafted guitar sync that flowed into the surrounding room as though it were alive. Beautifully engineered and with sounds that seemed to echo between the basement walls, all that heard this noise was captivated by its essence. Evidently, we are listening to an artist who has spent a reasonable amount of time in the studio, and had this been a guitar competition I would have laid my cards on the table right there, for Mikey is good, so good.

However, as if that wealth of sound and skill weren’t enough, we were then initiated into the ethereal voice of Mathews. Haunting and sublime, if Bauer were the Pied Piper we would have been drawn into the cavities of the wall and into a world or our own collective imagination. No, we are not looking at some kids spewing force noise for the sole purpose of entertaining the masses. Instead, the songs are weaved with a combination of intelligence and passion and had I not been frozen by a jaunt in the cold, my little soul would have wept in compassion.

Emotion aside, I must note here however, that this gig was not representative of the whole band. In fact, despite been a four piece, only Matthews and Mikey graced the crowd with their presence. Had Treppas and Bradbury turned up, I’m sure a whole new feeling would have been evoked from the crowd. For without drum and base, this 80’s inspired, alternative-powerpop sound (think Depeche Mode mixed with Elbow) seemed all too otherworldly.

forty shades of noise.