First ever show from new Notts band from members of Dick Venom, Practical Lovers and Captain Dangerous...
Hollywood are the latest Nottingham ‘super-group’, fronted by Will Wilkinson from Dick Venom, and featuring Mark Connell from Practical Lovers on bass and Adam Clarkson from Captain Dangerous on keyboard and backing vocals.
I'm Not From London put on a show at The Lofthouse to celebrate the new single release from Chambers with Hollywood playing their first ever gig in support (apparently a warm-up at The Angel a week earlier didn't count).
Coming on stage an hour late due to some recording going on in the studio next to The Lofthouse, their set-opener sounds like Amnesiac-era Radiohead. It might be that it's more of a line-check as the band didn't get a proper sound check and the rest of the set has much more of a Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds sound. Frontman Will doesn't quite have the snake-hips of the antipodean lord of gothic lushness.
The band are incredibly tight considering that this is their first gig. The final song of the set sounds a little edgier, a nod towards The Birthday Party if we're keeping the Nick Cave analogy going. However, the riff sounds a little like The Riverboat Song by Ocean Colour Scene and Will's clipped vocals reminded me slightly of Vic Reeve's club singer. Far better is the penultimate number, which sounds fantastic and contains a really good, rock-y instrumental.
There's not a huge amount of musical variety in the thirty-minute set but what they do play is all very good. As always with super-groups / side-projects, how they develop may depend on how much time the members are able to dedicate over their other projects. They've already started talking about new songs and more gigs in 2017 and after such a good start, it's definitely worth keeping yer tabs open for Hollywood…
Hollywood played at The Lofthouse on Saturday 10 December 2016.
Hollywood on Soundcloud
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