![\"\"](\"http:\/\/jonnyjaniero.wpengine.com\/thejoycollectivewp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/No-Age1.jpg\" "\\"No")
<\/a><\/p>\nNO AGE arrive in Bristol toting second album proper Everything In Between<\/em>, to these ears a huge step forward even given the quality of Nouns<\/em>.\u00a0 On record they’ve worked from the start to leaven the ferocity of their ace former band Wives with sections, or whole songs, teased out at slower tempos; the dreamy, spooky pop and synthy overtones were more focused on the recent Losing Feeling<\/em> EP and that’s been retained.\u00a0 Live, though, the whipcrack pace is largely maintained, a sense of beery bonhomie intact as the two-minute Wipers\/Huskers noise-pop gems race by.\u00a0 Adding a keyboard player on recent dates\u00a0may have\u00a0allowed a splash\u00a0more texture, but we can still expect plenty of nuggety joy from a band hitting the top of their game without making either wholesale changes (Hi, Abe Vigoda!) or a noticeably\u00a0conscious effort.<\/p>\n Sub Pop labelmates MALE BONDING again miss Cardiff, having slipped off the Surfer Blood support slot in May.\u00a0 It’s our loss.\u00a0 You’d be forgiven for a little mistrust of the London trio’s studied lo-fi pose and eagerness to trace around well-worn indie-punk templates – Dinosaur Jr, early Nirvana and indeed No Age for starters – except that they do it really<\/em> well.\u00a0 Their concurrent membership of arty noise outift PRE serves as a bit of a red herring; bassist Kevin Hendrick’s less often noted past in Brit-grungers Seafood in practice gives clearer notice of the unneringly catchy pop smeared all over debut album Nothing Hurts<\/em>.\u00a0 Much like Lovvers, albeit with less slurring and self-conscious attitude, there’s a great noisy pop band here and a perfect compliment to No Age.<\/p>\n Opening the Bristol gig, having (I think) been shifted from another local booking, is super-prolific\u00a0New Jersey mystery man Mike Sniper, AKA Blank Dogs.\u00a0 Through a blizzard of releases for his own Captured Tracks label and other reliable indie names (Woodsist, In The Red, Troubleman), Sniper blurs the edges between the\u00a0lo-fi, C86\/shoegaze revivalism of Crystal Stilts or Vivian Girls, a darker, Factory-era\u00a0 gloom reminiscent of the Cure or Joy Division and the particular feverish hysteria of fellow bedroom shut-ins Ariel Pink or Zola Jesus.\u00a0 Flipping the Brits-do-US trick of Male Bonding, Sniper stares back across the pond, and two decades, with whirring post-punk tape\/drum machine rhythms and affecting Robert Smith vocals.\u00a0 Make it there early to see whether he faces the crowd.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n