The Next Big Thing

Last night I managed to drag myself out of the house and into Glasgow. Firefox AK was opening for a Canuck combo called Junior Boys and you have to take your superior electro-pop action where you can find it. Firefox AK is the alter ego of Andrea Kellerman. Her album "Madame, Madame!" came out on Razzia last year and she also dueted on the HS “Long Lost Penpal” cut.

When she took the stage, the JB crowd was beginning to trickle in. Unfortunately the laws of economics dictated that it was a solo performance. With some of the backing tracks on ipod and augmented by guitar and vocal, the material from the album sounded a good deal gutsier at a volume you can’t really achieve at home. A rock edge was evident that perhaps isn’t definable in the studio stuff.

The music comes from a place on the corner of Neu and La Dusseldorf. There are elements of Kraftwerk but this trans-european expression has a warmth that rarely emits from the man-machine ouvre. There’s also a sense of the OMD sensibility with a hook. She’s quite a compelling performer even in this possibly nerve-racking situation and every inch a proper pop star in waiting. The room was a bit more full by the end of her set. This is the curse of the pre-club gig circuit and the bane of support act life. “What’s That Sound” has hit pre-programmed all over it and if there was still such a thing as Saturday morning pop shows then “All Those People” would connect with the kids and they’d all run out to buy the single. Now I guess they just run to their keyboard and download it. Doesn’t seem the same somehow. Check out the songs on her myspace page, suspend the requirement to rock out in a conventional sense. You might like it. I know I do.