Londonist Live: Good Shoes at KCLSU - 29/11/06

By londonist_music Last edited 207 months ago
Londonist Live: Good Shoes at KCLSU - 29/11/06

Morden’s Good Shoes have spent the past 2 years since their formation in 2005 traipsing around the UK and Europe with their brand of two-and-half-minute guitar pop with a hint of a punk edge. Comprised of lead singer/guitarist Rhys Jones, guitarist Steve Leach, bassist Joel Cox, and drummer Tom Jones, they have already released 3 singles, played at the Reading and Leeds Festivals, and been mentioned in the NME (but then again, who hasn’t).

We went to King’s College last Wednesday night without really knowing what to expect, but the fact that the boys themselves look barely legal and the show was 14+ — with everyone under 16 required to bring a chaperone — should’ve tipped us off to the fact that this was going to be a night of drunk skinny teenage debauchery.

Unfortunately we couldn’t hear Jones’ lyrics all too well – thus missing out on such gems (seriously though, no sarcasm here) as “met a girl on the plane to Canada/drinking wine, watching Maid in Manhattan/my friends are getting drunk/I think that Joe threw up/things were so much better when we were younger.” That might have been the product of having to stand on the second floor to avoid being jostled by the enthusiastic mass of 15-year-old girls and 17-year-old boys.

They started off strong with a dueling guitar instrumental from Jones and lead guitarist Steve Leach, and the music was good enough to dance to. Pretty soon the songs began to sound a little bit too indistinguishable from one another, although they were by no means boring or trite. The mosh pit and the huge, burly guards who had to keep throwing kids off the monitors were more entertaining than the band, in the end, as we watched eagerly to see if there would be any casualties in the pit before the night was over – there were none.

Good Shoes is actually a good band in their own right, but it might be more convenient to sit home and listen to their singles and watch their videos on YouTube. Which won’t be too difficult in the coming weeks, as their debut album The Photos On My Wall is set to be released Christmas Day on Brille Records.

Watch the video for The Photos On My Wall here and catch the boys doing a live performance instore at PureGroove on December 30th.

Words by Diana Salier. Photo taken from Jamila Scott's flickr stream.

Last Updated 07 December 2006