So that's what took them so long to set up. After a ferocious intro with Setting Sun, accompanied by vermillion and orange strobes, the aliens finally arrive, with a light display that doesn't disappoint. A few songs in and I am wondering whether this bunch of apparently ordinary blokes have actually got any tricks up their sleeves bar the fabulous light show - for now the aliens moniker seems hardly suited at all, but then the singer inexplicably requests a towel with which to wipe his patch, and whilst he doesn't immediately engage in some breakdancing (although a little bit of body-popping makes an appearance later) he does take a turn for the strange - coming over all Mr C out of the Shamen on us.
It's when the plodding beats of the dad rock that is the basis of The Aliens sound turns all space age disco synth rave that something special happens - when their bedraggled singer starts to kick a football around as he engages in a beautious 5 part harmony that harks back to the days of the Beta Band "love isn't love til it's gone" Mind you, that doesn't stop the blokes next to me commenting on his apparently sozzled state "he's absoluetly pissed" which might explain why I can't understand a bloody word that he mumbles. And why is the drummer (who looks cute from the balcony) wearing a smart shirt and tie? Which is soaked incredibly unattractively in sweat? Wear a lose beater my man - it would look better in the long run! It occurs to me amid the disco balls and pink swirls that being a rock star is now an acceptable grown man's profession - it's perfectly okay to get trashed and go on tour well into your nether years these days. "ain't it great to feel alive" asks the singer as they exit their best known tune and gig highlight, the quasi new rave anthem Robot Man. complete with rave keyboards to rival the best that youngsters of new rave have yet to throw at us. And the thing is, you know that the Aliens were there the first time around. Mr C, synths.... these indie rockers were out there popping es with the best of them.
