Fake Problems
The first thing you see as you enter the Fake Problems MySpace page, are the words ‘It’s Great to be Alive’; the title of their latest collection of songs, and as the first thing you see as the American four piece take to the stage are the bands smiling faces; you get the sense that they actually believe it.
This is something that is refreshing to see in a world full of cynicism, depression and a nasty economic recession, with this in mind, I found it easy to fall for the bands own brand of rock n’ roll music. Despite the lack of any ground breaking musical creativity, and with a name I previously felt must not have taken much thought, I decided not to think too much about the technicalities of the song production and how the style has been reproduced before, and instead just enjoy the catchy upbeat chorus’ and sing along with the band.
The truth is, Fake Problems are incredibly good at what they do, the songs seem to have come naturally to them and give the sense that they haven’t been overly manufactured. The band come across as incredibly experienced and well practiced, the way they interact on stage and the tightness of their musicianship proves this. The changes in dynamics from quiet sections of songs to the louder offerings are executed neatly, and towards the end of the set , the lead guitarist pulls off some guitar-riffery that any ‘Guitar-hero’ expert would be jealous of.
The latter half of the set also included some slightly heavier musical moments, the bridge sections and endings to songs seemed suddenly to be fuelled with an aggressive edge, and came from a place that Fake Problems seemed comfortable on stage to share, more moments like this, and I feel Fake Problems could be even more wonderful.
The real talent for me in Fake Problems lies in the front man and singer Chris Farren. His energy on stage, powerful bluesy type vocals and evident charisma really carries the band. Leading the crowd through various clap-a-long, sing-a-longs and anything else-a-longs, he really manages to capture most of the audiences attention.
However this is where the difficulty lies, being an American band singing songs about the American dream, sandwiched between two English acts in the city of Manchester, means you will only capture the attention of half of the crowd. For Fake Problems this is a huge shame, had they been given the full attention of a huge fan base they deserve they would flourish and their true ability would shine.
I can’t vouch for how well they are doing back home in Naples, Florida, but I can say with a bit of time and relentless touring with artists like Frank Turner, they will eventually build up a huge fan base in England and maybe then, show us all their true potential, which I believe they have an abundance of.