Operator Please & Good Shoes Live

Operator Please & Good Shoes
Concorde 2, Brighton
Tuesday 20th November


Operator Please sound sketchy, rough and natural. They look fresh, if a little bit frazzled, and genuinely animated. They sing a song about ping pong called ‘Just A Song About Ping Pong.’ It’s fast, jumpy eccentricity with an Aussie twang and a violin.

There are certainly more inventive bands around; some of The Maccabees are inside Concorde tonight, for a start. The five-piece may include a violinist, but this isn’t affecting Arcade Fire grandeur and doesn’t intend to be. ‘Get What You Want’ is a bass-driven canter to a bouncy chorus, showcasing the band’s style. The aforementioned table-tennis tribute is well-received, while new single ‘Leave It Alone’ shares its charged pop sensibilities. They may not be ground-breaking, but as the keyboardist giddily galumphs around behind her instrument, their quirky enthusiasm is infectious.

Operator Please have the beguiling advantage of striving to elevate their exposed potential. Good Shoes have long since passed the point of acceptance and acclaim. The kids strutting around in the groups patented ‘I’m in a band but I’ve got no talent’ merchandise emphasises this. Yet recognition seems to have gleaned an edge from the Morden outfit.

That t-shirt slogan contains an endearingly gentle insecurity that seeps out of tracks like ‘Blue Eyes.’ The jerky lure of the song’s angular (it’s impossible to write about Good Shoes and not call them angular) riffs is joined with lyrical nervousness that transfers onstage in physical form. Now though, frontman Rhys Jones looks confident, unnervingly comfortable. He beckons the crowd to join in a frantic ‘Never Meant To Hurt You’, while the band climb aboard speakers.

This newfound showmanship has distinct advantages. The audience is active and laps up the energy swirling around the pillared cove of a venue. The band are more direct, notably on ‘Nazazin’, all sparring guitars and gabbled lyrics. But they also relax enough to slow down, with melodies forming more frequently and lyrics resonating more clearly. ‘Morden’, the band’s most thoughtfully-shaped song, has the room to breathe and sounds increasingly striking with this space.

A couple of new tracks are aired, not departing from the trademark snappy dizziness of older songs like closer ‘All In My Head.’ They leave without encore or fuss, content at the crowd’s thirst for more. Good Shoes are in transition, no longer hot new things, not yet established. Their catalogue of hits, snapshots of suburbia, are easily liked and impressively performed. As they continue the bravado will swell, but they need to combine it with the nervous energy that made them so exciting originally.