Mindless Self Indulgence - The Brook, Southampton - October 16th 2007
Support: Plastic Toys & Scanners

A small throng of fans gather outside The Brook music venue in Southampton to catch Mindless Self Indulgence, an industrial/punk band from New York who don't often sail over this way.

First up though is Southampton based rock group Plastic Toys who really earn their place on that stage. It's obvious from the whoops and cheers that this band already have some fans in the audience and after only a few tracks, they manage to win over the rest of the crowd.
Their latest single 'Let Me Feel The Love' is reminiscent of 80s glam rock, while lead singer Jon looks like a dirtier version of 30 Seconds To Mar's Jared Leto.
The band have an amazing stage presence and thrash around the stage in a blur. Plastic Toys succeed in getting this audience pumped up and ready for the show ahead.

The second support band of the night are mistaken for roadies setting up for MSI, but they are actually London based Indie band, Scanners who are supporting MSI throughout the tour.
Scanners announce that they only turned up 10 minutes ago because their van broke down and after a few tracks, it's obvious that this band should have been put onstage before Plastic Toys.

After a band like Plastic Toys have put the audience on a real high, Scanners bring them straight back down again. Their sound is particularly whiny and consists of a lot of screeching, nintendo like sounds which are particularly annoying. Lead singer Sarah's microphone is obviously not turned up enough as we can barely make out what she's saying.
Their stage presence is just as bad, Guitar/Keys player Amina stands in the same spot strumming her guitar with no enthusiasm at all, you wouldn't think she was living out every wannabe rock star's dream.
A cheer goes up when Scanners announce their last song and as a punishment, guitarist Matt leaves his guitar screeching on the speaker, deafening everyone around.


The Brook have been trying to book Mindless Self Indulgence for two years now and thank God they managed it. As they take to the stage, they launch straight into 'Tornado' which turns the crowd into exactly that.
Not even 10 minutes into the set and we have our first crowd surf from Bassist Lyn-Z which, is unsurprisingly welcomed by the group of guys that catch her.

Each member of the band have amazing stage presence as they continually jump around and look like they are enjoying performing to Southampton. Lead singer Little Jimmy Urine talks about completely random things through-out the entire set and at one point he even opens a box of Cookie Crisp cereal over the hungry crowd.

Old favourites such as 'Shut Me Up' and 'Faggot' have the crowd going absolutely wild as every single person shouts back the lyrics word perfect.

The band continue to thrash out the hits such as 'Bitches,' 'Kill The Rock,' and 'Molly' and unfortunately the time arrives for the encore, a time when most bands head backstage, stand around for a few minutes and listen to the chants from the crowd.
Tonight is a little different however, as the band don't leave the stage. Jimmy lets us know 'exactly' what goes on back there and they launch into 'Jimmy Page' which the crowd have been chanting for all night.

Tonight's show closes with Jimmy lip-syncing to 'Theres No Business, Like Show Business' and prancing around the stage like an idiot. A perfect, hilarious ending to one of the most intense and exciting shows I've ever witnessed.

You can see photographs from this show at the GALLERY


Review by Cherry Pullinger


<- Back