 | | Tiny Dancers |
First, The Arctic Monkeys use the t’internet to produce the fastest selling debut of all time and then Sheffield’s Tiny Dancers do it the old fashioned way, getting a deal off the back of a couple of demos. It’s not hard to see why Parlaphone were so keen judging by this exuberant display of psychedelic pop from a tight five piece that clearly love playing live. From the moment effortlessly charismatic frontman David Kay jumped on stage in a kaftan and threw a bag of balloons into an adoring audience, you feel the confidence pouring out of the band. Mind you, that kaftan would have earned David a serious battering down Coles Corner, and I would advise Tiny Dancers to lose the Native American face paint as that looked plain daft. But it’s not just about image, as they have spent some time actually writing melodies and great pop/rock songs with a hook. I’ve Got To Go was a case in point, with a lovely hookline driven by a red-hot rhythm section featuring one of the best bass players I’ve ever seen. It’s very rare that young bands have the confidence to play it for laughs but the bizarre clap-along during Bonfire of the Night was great fun as two halves of the audience competed against each other. There’s a lot of early Band in Tiny Dancers, which is a great compliment, especially when four of the band are all strong singers, so the resulting four-point harmonies really lift songs like We Don’t Know What Goes On in Your Little Mind. I hadn’t heard a note of Tiny Dancers’ material before I tipped up at this gig but, make no mistake, this was an outstanding live show by far the best young band I’ve seen this year. Not for them the tiresome po-faced posturing of other new acts because this was a band playing live for the sheer joy of it. A joy that seemed to spread around the room like an invisible wave, hinting at greater things to come. | 
