The Folk Implosion / Purr
Paris Cafe de la Danse
There is something going up onstage, and it’s either the biggest load of toss I’ve ever seen, or the future of music as we know it. Local lads (which makes them French, remember) Purr are a three-piece guitar outfit who play a mainly instrumental set and the last band I saw who had such an amazing command of dynamics and unconventional rhythms were fronted by a guy called Tricky- more than once do we see the lead singer nodding his head to a beat only he can feel. As they leave, I’m still not sure what I think. I may have seen the future, and I’m afraid to say it just might be French.
When Lou Barlow and the ridiculously young John Davis amble onstage, they don’t exactly come across like a band who have had a hit single. In fact, they don’t come across like a band at all. They come across like your two mates, who have just decided to grab a couple of guitars, get up on stage and play some songs what they wrote. This is The Folk Implosion Mk.1, the short, snappy acoustic bit, and with nothing else for them to hide behind, we are left with just the songs, bare and exposed, reminding us that behind all the indie-rock, lo-fi, slacker credibility, Barlow remains a talented songwriter.
Later, two of your other mates decide they want a go, and climb up on stage to play bass and drums. This is the so-called Deluxx Folk Implosion, but it’s still just two blokes with some cracking songs, only playing louder.
But suddenly they play ‘Natural One’, and it’s a BAND up there. There’s a bit of a lightshow going on and you feel like they may even have rehearsed by the way they all finish at the same time.
And this is the dilemma The Folk Implosion find themselves in. Fun though the no-frills, back-to-basics attitude is, they also have the potential to be a really great band, as well as really great songwriters. Whether they have the patience, or the inclination, to fulfil this potential only time will tell.
