It's fair to say that Hope of the States are a demanding bunch. This is the third time I've seen them in the last 2 years and the second time that I haven't known the majority of the songs played. I admire them for that (in fact there's a lot of the way they go about their business which really appeals to me aside from the actual music, loads of songs, the prominence of obscurities in their sets, hell, one of their best songs is only available in B-side demo form (or on expensive Japanese imports.) - it’s easy to see why they inspire such devotion.)

But this contrariness has its drawbacks. On the way out I overhear one woman saying "They were frighteningly bad”. It’s a comment that I don’t agree with at all but, judging from the muted audience reaction throughout and the limited demand for an encore, it seems it would probably be shared to some degree by a section of the audience. In fact it’s an echo of the pre-Lost Riots Tut’s show almost 2 years ago, again when a lot of people would be faced by the material for the first time.

Now it’s not unusual for bands to do small scale club gigs to promote their new LPs and normally you would expect such shows to be populated by the diehards. But out of 14 songs played tonight only 5 have been released and at least one of the other 9 doesn’t appear to be on the new LP! That's a lot to take in for anyone who doesn't religiously collect the live recordings. 

It's therefore why I feel this was a pretty good show but not a great one, simply because of a lack of familiarity on my part with the material.

A lot of the new stuff isn’t immediate and seems to have taken some sort of cue from the post 70s punk explosion currently consuming the airwaves.  I’m reminded of the description Sam made of the new songs being like Joy Division going disco (what like New Order?) and whilst I can see the JD influences, the disco bit eludes me. But it’s more about a sensibility than the wholesale ripping off of certain bands by certain current popular bands and the result is some taut, claustrophobic rock. Finding the Nehemiah's or George Washington's in this lot isn' t  easy.

Another positive is that the “we’re bored with noise” comments seem to be downright misleading. Thankfully there is plenty of noise left here...

Highlights? Well, the 2 hairs-stand-up-on-the-back-of-the-neck moments are the eminently predictable but brilliant nonetheless ‘Black Dollar Bills’ and a savage ‘Static In The Cities’. Of the newer material the double whammy opener of ‘Bonfires’ and ‘Industry’ set an impressive tone which is picked up by ‘Blood Meridian’ whilst oldie (but apparently not on the new LP) ‘Black Stars, Red Stars’ fills a ‘Black Amnesias’ sized gap in the set (in part at least).

 Some of the material later in the set opens things up a bit with ‘Sing It Out’ sounding like the single in waiting it is whilst the closing ‘The Church Choir’ sounds on first listen like something that could be truly special on the record. It's a brave choice to end the main set, although that surely indicates the regard that the song is held in by the band.

Another  highlight  comes from the crowd. (Lack of) reaction to the songs aside, the audience do contribute substantially to the atmosphere with a steady stream of banter (matched by Sam) throughout.

 The speed of this band’s change is impressive but I’ll confess to missing some of the LP material like ‘Amnesias’, ’66 Sleepers’ and ‘George Washington’. Sticking with just the singles seems a slightly disappointingly predictable choice for this band.

So all in all it's a good show and it succeeds in priming interest in the new LP. And I am looking forward to hearing these songs again live when I know them better.

Setlist

Bonfires
Industry
TRTWTBTB
The Good Fight
Blood Meridian
Enemies/Friends
Black Dollar Bills
Sing It Out
This Is A Question
Nehemiah
The Church Choir 

Black Stars Red Stars
Under The Wires
Static In The Cities