"You're letting me down," says DJ Ian Wright to a crowd hanging on to the sides of the dance-floor as if it is packed with piranhas. "You look like you're stuck in Sunday school." He cranks the funk voltage higher, like a paramedic trying to shock some movement into the place. Well, it is the end of the weekend.
Perhaps the Soul Destroyers are aware of this. And perhaps they are anxious to overcompensate for the mysterious absence of their singer. Either way, their set takes a cannonball to flatten a pea. Drummer Malcolm Catto keeps his hooded top firmly in place, Jedi-style, hunches over his small kit and gives it a Duracell bunny thrashing, occasionally looking up to check that the rest of the band are still in Camden. This is no-frills drumming, but it's got bags of drive - it's just a pity that his toy-town cymbals aren't miked up. There's some nimble bass playing, and the rest of the band - organ, sax, and guitar - follow suit to build a wall of funk.
But everyone seems to be playing as if they're in their own corner of the world, doing their thing. Every hole is filled in, with little in the way of break-downs or build-ups. Apart from one or two Hendrix-like slower grooves, it's full-on all the way, every man for himself, no one quite getting out of anyone else's way. And so the sax and organ lines keep getting stuck between solos and riffs, finding it tricky to fit in. It's hard to build a solo up when you're already at 11.
When singer Sharon Jackson arrives halfway through the set, one of the first things she says, grabbing a quick aside on the mic, is "Keep it mellow." On a slower, grinding tune she starts to bring out some hidden qualities, a bit more soul. But not for long. She's soon at full tilt with everyone else, only letting us hear one side of a good voice.
The Soul Destroyers have certainly got the energy to kick up even a Sunday night crowd, but they need to combine that bottle with a few more ups and downs, more dynamics in the playing, and a bit more space to let the grooves work - rather than just living up to their name.
