February 10, 1999
London WC2 Borderline
The latest British band to be found conversing with the musical phantoms of the West Coast...
It's difficult to believe that America exists until you actually go there (Are you sure? - Ed). Slumming it in north London, as Minibar have done, all you've got to go on are Channel 4 sitcoms, satellite TV and your record collection.
Tonight, Minibar are the latest British band to be found conversing with the musical phantoms of the West Coast. From the desert poetics of Mojave 3 to the absurd spectacle of 1998's Menswear wearing ten-gallon hats it seems everybody is riding the career resurrection wagon out west.
Songs like 'Retrospect' and 'Holiday For Myself' might arrive with all the requisite sunny FM harmonies and poised Buffalo Tom-isms, but initially there's something odd about their composite north London take on Americana.
That's not to say that Minibar are a write-off. As their set progresses, they show enough melodic hooks and steel guitar drones to suggest that - given time - they might pull off their audacious annexing of a continent. For now they're playing the equivalent of their local Travel Lodge, but at least they're aiming for Hotel California.
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