The Lancashire Hotpots – Fibbers, York – Saturday 10th November 2012

The Lancashire Hotpots – Fibbers, York – Saturday 10th November 2012
Supported by the Lumberjack Cowboy Heartbreak Trucking Company

And so, by a random collection of coincidences, this was the fourth time since June that I’ve seen the Lancashire Hotpots, a five-piece band famous for their comedy folk songs about modern life, a band I’ve grown to really enjoy since their first CD was used as a test disc at the Students’ Union club nights back in the day.

Returning to the Fibbers venue in York, the one where they spend all the money refurbishing but then forgot to replace the chipboard toilets, it was thankfully a better sounding gig than the Spector gig I heard at their upstairs neighbour the Duchess five days ago where the sound mix was shocking; so at least they spend the money wisely on some decent sound and acoustics.

Having seen them for the past three times without support it was interesting to find them supported tonight by a new band after the sad splitting up of the excellent Re-entrants. In their place we got the “Lumberjack Cowboy Heartbreak Trucking Co.” who, as you can imagine by the name, were probably a joke band. And this is where I stood there scratching my head.

The problem with the support was that it wasn’t entirely clear whether they were serious or not. They purported to be a band from the American Mid-West, as cemented in by their costumes and accents. The six-piece band of a guitarist, drummer, bass, singer / guitar and two female backing singers ticked all the boxes of being a serious American country band down to their opening four songs which, starting with the toe-tapping ‘Promised Land’, were very much religious themed with most of the songs being based around praising Jesus, all delivered well and sounded fantastic, even if the choruses were over played and most songs fitted into the template of verse-chorus-verse-chorus-chorus sung acapella-chorus which tired pretty quickly after they did this over, and over, and over again for what was, having said that, a generous fifty-minute support set, far more than you’d expect and, if I’m being honest, far more than I’d actually want.

Then, after delivering these four songs with a religious message which really sat awkwardly with the firmly secular and overtly funny style of the Hotpots, they threw a curveball and sang a song about the leader singer finding his wife upstairs with another man and deciding to take advantage of the situation and “film a porno”. “Let's Make a Video” was a huge juxtaposition and a very funny song, and was followed by a smattering of other genre mickey-takes including a song where he’s visited by Jesus and asked to write a song to unite the world which would be called “Don’t Take The Piss Out Of Me” which would later be transformed into the sexual-innuendo-filled chorus of “Don’t Take Your First Out Of Me”. They would also sing it in French and German (but not Mandarin). This was equally a great sing-a-long track, even if it did slightly outstay its welcome and was joined in the set by a few other obviously comic tracks, but was surrounded by more straight up tunes.

I’m still in two minds about the band: were they meant to be a comedy band or not, and were they even American as their first song made a subtle reference to ‘Robin Hood’s Bay’? Obviously the songs I’ve outlined above could never be sung with a straight face so were the four songs that opened either a false opening to make the porn video song more of a shock or was it the subtle humour of sending up mid-West religious bands? It did feel like I was missing something: either the joke was too subtle for the majority of the performance or they were just confused themselves.

It’s difficult to review them as the band was tight, the songs catchy and the funny songs well judged, but many outstayed their welcome and would have made better tunes as tighter, shorter songs and their regular switching to acapella became tedious after they were done for the third, then fourth, then fifth times. It was a very generous support at fifty minutes but a shorter time would have been better as my attention did wane near the end.

After the confusing opening set, we got the Hotpots and, because of the support act or because Fibbers seem to do shorter act lengths, we got pretty much the set we got for Lancaster, Bingley and Leeds but with many numbers cropped out:

Let’s Get Leathered
Bitter Lager Cider Ale Stout
I Fear Ikea
Roy
Uncle Bernard
Chav
Cinema Smugglers
The Perfect Pint
Keys Wallet Phone
Indie Disco
Beer Olympics
He’s Turned Emo
A Lancashire DJ
Me PSP
Chippy Tea

Encore:
Shopmobility Scooter / Hey Jean
Hotpot Style / Bang Bang Thumpy Megamix

Victims of this thirty-five minute shorter set were ‘I Met A Girl On MySpace’, ‘Ebay Eck’, ‘Has Anyone Seen My Dongle?’, ‘I’ll Ave One Wi Yer’, ‘Kebablishment’, ‘Cottaging’ and ‘The Girl From Bargain Booze’, a fair selection of songs including some personal favourites. Now, I’ve seen them performed recently so their absence wasn’t missed by me but there were probably some in the audience who would have liked to have heard them. Like a tree-loving food connoisseur I would have rather had twenty minutes less Lumberjack and twenty minutes more Hotpot, but the set was still a strong one and delivered in their usual enthusiastic style, even if it times they did feel like they were rushing to squeeze as much in as possible into their shorter set time, though we did get an expanded version of ‘Roy’ – or at least its variations.

‘Let’s Get Leathered’ was as fun an opening as ever and ‘Bitter Lager Cider Ale Stout’ continued the theme, and personal favourite ‘I Fear Ikea’ is always welcome. Though the surprise for me was spoilt by already hearing the adaptation at Leeds, the Saville-lyrical tweak of ‘Uncle Bernard’ went down a storm, alongside possibly the best puppet sequence I’ve seen before this track. The YMCA-style dance to ‘CHAV’ was as popular as ever and the dance section kicked the crowd off, with the hotpots once more switching into their rave gear, with the conga-line going down well and setting the venue alight. It was just a shame that, like every other gig I’ve been to recently, there’s always a drunken idiot nearby that seems intent on being an idiot.

Last Monday it was the middle-aged bald-headed man in the Duchess drunk on god knows what and being an arse; this time a blonde-haired woman in a flat cap and a man in a red shirt who seemed more interested in facing away from the band and acting up then his friend / partner preceding to keep drunkenly trying to tell me something but not loud enough to hear them over the music and then wouldn’t go away when I tried to ignore them.

The main set was brought to an end with the great ‘Chippy Tea’ before they returned in spangly jackets for the encore, to bring the singable ‘Shopmobility Scooter’ with the ‘Hey Jean’ ending to the responsive crowd and then a fleshed out version of their “Gangnam Style”-spoof they aired at the Well in Leeds, now serving as an introduction to the dance music medley of the ‘Bang Bang Thumpy Megamix’, the fantastic way to end the gig.

At the end we also managed to finally pick up some of the Hotpot pint glasses.

Overall it was another entertaining night from the Hotpots. The presence of a support band added an extra element back into the night but the joke was too thin or obscure to really score big points and, though their fifty minute set was big for a support, I would have rather had less of them and more of the hotpots. With thirty five minutes dropped from their set it couldn’t match the Well in Leeds for the range of tracks and the crowd weren’t quite as fun but they played all their big hits and the band were on top form again and, though seeing them four times in as many months can wear the magic away, it was still a great night and Fibbers, as a venue, was far clearer for the music than their competitors upstairs, which is something the Duchess should learn from.

7/10