The Open (Walsall Wharf, 3rd April 2004)

I just have to say, I don't remember this gig at all. I don't know what I was doing there, who I went with or why I reviewed it.

 REVIEW

THE OPEN – Walsall Wharf, Saturday 3/4/04

You can forgive a new band several things. You can forgive ‘em dodgy monitors, broken guitar strings, unsuitable venues. When it’s a local band on what is touted as their homecoming gig, maybe, you can forgive the just about anything. But tonight, The Open showed that you can give them all the licence in the stratosphere and it still wouldn’t matter – they’re still abysmal.

They’ve garnered comparisons with such darlings of the music press as The Stone Roses and Echo and the Bunnymen, but, being kind, and that’s showing the patience of a saint, you could perhaps compare them to The Thrills after a particularly ‘light’ sojourn to San Fran, but not tonight. America is probably calling, but on this hearing, The Open won’t get as far as Birmingham.

For a new band, they’re tight, and know where one another should come in when they’re meant to, but in a poor, student-led set, only single ‘Close My Eyes’ garners any kind of response, and probably only because half the audience happen to be family members or old school friends.

On this showing, The Open will make the perfect band for Walsall. They’re unpretentious, lacking ambition and as wet as the Black Country weather. I suspect, when the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame opens its doors to a band from Middle England other than Black Sabbath, it won’t be The Open that it’s opening its doors to. All in all, very poor, and very overrated. 


Chris Stanley

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