A new meaning of 'stoner rock'?
There’s a fine line between pride and arrogance, or so the old adage goes. With Agent Blue, playing the second support slot for tour buddies yourcodenameis:milo tonight, it’s not crystal clear whether vocalist Nic Andrews is in love with himself naturally, or whether it has something to do with him seemingly being absolutely stoned out of his mind. Either way, Agent Blue step dangerously close to that ferocious red line a few too many times tonight.
There’s a definite energy about them onstage. Each band member leaps around, colliding into one another frequently yet continuing regardless. As the smoke machines kick in and the powerful lighting flashes, the band’s excellent stage presence is heightened even more. These guys know how to put on a show.
Unfortunately, at times, it seems they don’t know where to stop. Not ten minutes in, Agent Blue’s vocalist is hanging from the lighting structures above the stage, before jumping wildly into the crowd and, well, lying down. At first, people seemed to wonder if he was all right or not; it quickly dawned on the perplexed audience that this was in fact part of the act.
Musically, Agent Blue’s mixture of alternative rock, power-pop and aggressive punk came across fairly well, though perhaps not quite as impressively as the other two bands tonight. The band sounded tight and well-rehearsed, but the songs seemed to blend together at times, without a great deal in the way of variety.
Their lively performance, however, more than made up for this, resulting in a fairly good support slot, but a little less arrogance, and it could have been a fantastic gig.