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Review: Tribes gig at the Cellar, 5th February

“a tribe is a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, connected to an idea..a group need only two things to be a tribe: a shared interest and a way to communicate”
Seth Godin – Tribes.

 

Taking their name from Seth Godin’s bestseller, Tribes have genuinely taken his words to heart. Dan – the guitarist – asserts that “the book just seemed to fit what we were doing and the words stuck” (added to the fact that they had to settle on a name by the end of the day, and the only other option they had come up with was ‘Jesus the Movie’ – “just think of the artwork and the t-shirts!”) They are indeed a tightly knit group, having grown up together: “we’ve been playing together for as long as we can”. And with thoughtful lyrics combined with 90s-esque chord progressions they seem to have hit on a successful method of ‘communication’, rapidly attracting a devoted fan base. “The 90s stuff, I know we get labelled with it, but we do like it” admits lead singer Johnny. Major influences include Smashing Pumpkins, R.E.M. and Radiohead…. “We’re expecting Thom to walk in any minute… I’m sure he will, he must have got the memo”. I point out that he has been known to walk his dog in university parks… “reeeally?” “is there a bandstand?”

As hypothetical as this scenario sounds, stranger things have happened in Tribes’ short life (a year and a day long to be exact): their sixth ever gig was supporting their heroes the Pixies at Troxy, and out of the blue Mystery Jets asked to do a cover of Tribes’ song ‘We were children’, which resulted in the bands touring the U.K. together.
It is safe to say that Tribes have acquired a solid fan base, and the Camden boys’ Oxford debut went down a storm. As soon as they stepped on stage streams of headbanging devotees filled the Cellar’s monthly clubnight ‘Yoof Presents’, singing along like pros and begging for an encore. Anyone would have thought they’d been transported to a sold out comeback show of long absent rock legends. In front of me one enthusiast shouted in the ear of another “it’s just hit after hit after hit!”.

 

While not quite the ‘secret’ ‘underground’ ‘organic’ anti-Myspacers NME have them pegged as (“we don’t have an agenda against it, we just don’t want to put all our chickens into our Myspace” “as they say”) the band are still very proud that their fan base “just seems to be building…there’s no cheating, people are coming to see the shows and enjoying them and coming back, it’s just great”.

 

Not only do they have a gripped audience, refreshingly, they also have something interesting to say. Discussing ‘Sappho’ and the mellower ‘Nightdriving’, a tribute to childhood friend Charlie Haddon, Johnny states, “I think when bad things happen in your life you either go one way or the other, it’s like a complete catalyst for change. When you think somebody’s dead and gone to heaven it makes you feel better, but my opinion wasn’t that…it’s just the pointlessness of everything that’s what it’s about, and now we’re talking about it so that’s pointless as well”. Despite the obvious nihilism, his final comment is not delivered without a hint of self mockery, and is met by chuckles from the other three. This delicate balance between seriousness and conviviality pervades both the band’s music and their attitude towards it. They are wholeheartedly committed to what they do, recognising “going where we wanna go with it you’ve got to put everything you have into it, more than 100%”, “we’re in it for the long run definitely, we’re not going to sit here like Brother and say ‘we’re the best band in the world’ cos we’re not, but we aspire to be so in the future if we can”. Happily though these efforts go hand in hand with nights out on tour with the Mystery Jets “off the fucking scale”, “we were just egging each other on or something – ‘this is fucking great let’s go for it!'”
‘Work hard play hard’, a mantra familiar to many an Oxford undergrad, emerges as this band’s philosophy. And well it is serving them too. With lots of touring planned for the summer, if you’re lucky Tribes might be coming to a venue near you… or maybe even a self constructed bandstand in University Parks…y’hear Thom?

 

 

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