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Kaito - Peterborough, The Park Thursday 31st May 2001 You can find small victories in the strangest of places. Tonight I'm in Peterborough on driver duty for Delicate AWOL. The support band are called Kaito and hail from Norwich. They are actually headlining, as they have played here several times before and are likely to pull in some punters. Each song is a hyper quick burst of energy barely three minutes in length. They have Gemma on bass - a bob haired mostly frowning and looking quite nervous cherubic lass. Deita plays a dressed up drum kit - leopard skin fur covers the bass, drum and a white shaggy fur is wrapped around the snare (I think). Dave is on guitar - although he really doesn't play it in the traditional sense. He's either making short sharp cutting noises with a metal slide (not unlike the guitar at the end of Nirvana's 'Radio Friendly Unit Shifter'), messing with the knobs on his array of five effects pedals, or using a toy space gun to create sound into the pickup. Nikki also pays guitar and is the main singer who comes alive whilst playing, but again seems a little nervous when introducing the songs. The quietly spoken, rushed talkback just adds to the whole package as the two extremes collide. Together they have the jerkiness of Elastica, crossed with the hypnotic-ness of The Fall, then add the quirkiness and vocal content of a meld of Melt Banana, The Flying Lizards and The Frank Chickens. Oh, and did I mention that they all bark and shout in various parts of the songs? The whole thing very sharp, very angular and highly enjoyable. But they are more that - refreshing, original and mesmerising spring immediately to mind. See them before they get bigger. Simon from Fierce Panda has already snapped them up! skippy

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