Now, people were supposed to go see Bis that day. Sadly, Bis got cancelled. Just as well, saved me the mad dash from Islington Academy to 229, because I had every intention of seeing both Bis and Oppenheimer.
Oppenheimer are the best thing that has emerged from Belfast for quite some time. No really, they are. The Myspace tagline reads ‘2 people, 1 sound, perfect pop music’. That is a wild understatement. Two people that seem to be doing the job of about five. One plays drums, sings, whips out a Melodica every now and then, the other plays an array of synths, jumps between them like a madman, leaps around robotically and even finds time to shout into a vocoder. Well and truly amazing.
One hapless punter described them as ‘somewhere between Blur and Ladytron’. Hm, not quite. Oppenheimer sound a lot bigger than that. Think Spector-esque electronic backing track, oddly spherical vocals and amazing tunes instead.
Bizarrely, they seem to be doing a lot better in the States than they do over here. This makes me a little angry, because if tonight’s measly turnout is anything to go by, they probably don’t want to return to London in a hurry.
Some time during the set, a very tall guy started dancing with a Shakira cutout. Exactly. Said cutout then ended up onstage and Shaun Oppenheimer declared that from now on, they didn’t feel they could ever do a gig without Shakira there.
Cunningly, they played a blend of half new stuff (a new album has just been recorded. Whoo!) and old favourites. Like the utterly fantastic Breakfast in NYC (quite possibly the most beautiful song written in the last three years!) and M.O.. The great thing is that they never sound quite like they do on record when they’re playing live. Bits and pieces are added here and there and the songs sound even better.
This should have been a sell-out gig. But no, about halfway through, a strong smell of bleach in the air was a stark reminder that yes, they were cleaning the bar and yes, this place was about to close. There was even a man with a mop and cleaning cart wandering around. Is nothing sacred?
Amazingly, Oppenheimer returned for an encore! Goes to show that the few people that were there obviously loved it! And so should everybody else. (And I’m off to draft a marriage proposal to the Oppenheimer with the good hair!).
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