Big Deal - Rainbow, Birmingham, 14/6/2013

by Sarah Mwangi

published: 30 / 6 / 2013

Big Deal - Rainbow, Birmingham, 14/6/2013

Sarah Mwangi watches Californian/London-based pop rock group Big Deal play a lethargic and uninspiring set at the Rainbow in Birmingham

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Big Deal’s Kacey Underwood and Alice Costelloe recently added a drummer and a bassist for their newest offering,‘June Gloom’ - a spirited sophomore album that is a display of pop-hearted rock. Playing on a night that honoured their album title, the quartet started with potential. Drowning the patter of rain outside the venue, Big Deal aimed to celebrate their newfound sound, with enthusiastic guitars and crashing cymbals. They appeared relaxed and comfortable with the modest crowd, and not concerned with theatrics but just playing their well developed songs. The sweetness of ‘Golden Light’ coupled with the thunderous ‘Teradactol’, sent the pulse rates to the high hundreds early on in the set. The only problem was that it couldn’t be maintained and soon ‘relaxed’ and ‘comfortable’ turned into lethargy and jadedness by the latter half of the night; attributes that proved to be so loud that the music faded into the background. The heart of the album the band were touring to promote was missing, and in its place were faults that should have remained hidden. The ideas were there, it’s true, but they were the same ideas duplicated to distraction. Their performance lacked variation and passion which meant that the homogeneous structure of the songs became visible as they melted into each, save for the brief pauses of small talk taken from Rockers’ Banter 101. To garner any enjoyment from this meant ignoring the boredom that outlined Big Deal’s expressions, the listlessness of the vocals and to try to catch the sounds that fought their way through. Once that had been achieved, it became... nice. The familiar partnering of hushed vocals and loud guitars and drums filled the spaces between the sparse audience. Everything moved along as scripted. When the band played, the audience tapped their feet. When the band stopped, the audience clapped their hands.