Infadels At Club NME

The Consortium - Bournemouth
January 2006


Crawling out from under a rock and checking out the alternative scene for the first time in a year, you would notice that indie/alternative music has gone all electronic. It's almost as necessary for a keyboard "sound", as having jeans so tight you can see a man’s religion and a woman’s closeness to the fabled dromedary digit. Sure, there are still purist "two meat (guitars) and veg (drums)" bands but in their spare time they all DJ out and re-mix everyone - or are remixed by someone - into a more freeform, throwdown dance version. Infadels have been one of the bands who set about embracing the dance element from stage one of production. They managed to throw all the styles onto the floor of the studio and, with intent, welded them all together with some double sided sticky tape, hard work and just a touch of gay abandon. When you get Infadels onstage they play in front of a set that looks like a student’s bedroom as they blast out all the raw energy of Punk, all the spring of Ska and all the hands in the air unruliness of Dance. 'Can't Get Enough' gets the biggest crowd reaction as the room erupts. Matt and Bnann hang from the I-Beam above the stage, like rock monkeys belting out "Cannnnnt get EEEEENOUGH!" and the rest of the band are thrashing their instruments for all they’re worth. Other songs getting an airing in this hour long set are ‘Love Like Semtex’, ‘Jagger '67’ and ‘1' 20’. All are met with equal enthusiasm from the crowd. As the band exit, stage left, you notice their sweat patches have migrated from just under the pits to, well, all over their shirt (yuck) but it doesn’t seem to bother the girls shouting "hiya!" and trying to get backstage. Infadels then, they get my vote for nicest group in music and seem to be a band taking on the world one gig at a time.

As a side note, just thought I'd share this: Wag the bassist was warming up backstage and I noticed a Blue Peter badge on his lapel. "Nice badge!" I commented, "how did you get that?" He laughed and said, "I tell everyone I have a story too dirty to tell about how I earned it..." Obviously with my interest pricked I fell into the trap, "so come on then, how did you earn it?" With a broad grin he said "I slept with the producer" he waited until I laughed before adding, "but I'm marrying her soon!"