London Alt-Rockers After the Riots

After dodging puddles and potential muggers in a warehouse-cluttered area of east London, a friend and I finally arrive at a chilly recording studio. Guitars and pizza boxes are all over the floor, and cigarette butts are spilling from empty beer cans. Blaring bass chords from the mixing deck fill the air space, making it hard to talk and announcing the raucous arrival of something new and promising: After the Riots.

AtheR (as someone once pointed out, a band isn’t cool until its name is abbreviated in the media) is an alternative five-piece with an indie twang. Guitarists Matt and Michael, bassist Charlie, vocalist Leigh and drummer Morgan got together about five years ago, and have since been tearing through the London alt-rock scene. When I meet them, the first thing you notice is how easily the guys get along. This is the first indication of good music to come; not unlike sex, people creating something together must have chemistry for optimum results. Johnny Marr and Morrissey didn’t get along, and look what happened there.

The boys are great fun; I’m taking mental notes over a beer in their studio and they don’t seem to mind my invasion on their creative process. Off-handed jokes and fags are being tossed around the room, which is why I’m genuinely surprised to eventually shuffle through a pile of very serious, emosocial lyrics. I was expecting caustic humour, SOaD (see?) styled metaphors and onstage bottle-breaking. Instead it’s a weird recipe of pre-1980 The Clash and, er, Sunny Day Real Estate. Not a bad combination though, and certainly nothing that could come out of a cookie cutter.

A few weeks later I wake up at the break of dawn with the distinctive taste of whisky in my mouth and something digging into my wrist. It’s a loop of manually indestructible paper. After examining it for clues, my memory returns: I finally went to see AtheR play live. And it was awesome.

Monto is a comfortably grungy club in central London. There’s a really sassy, alternative crowd; every girl has a side-part, every boy is wearing at least one item of plaid or leather. After the Riots is the headliner act following a series of punk-rocky, influenced-by-latenight-MTV2 type bands. They open with fast-paced moody Rush as the crowd adjusts to the new brand of sound. Leigh has an unusual, hoarse singing voice – the kind some of my more dedicated male friends down pints of Sailor Jerry’s to achieve.

Victory March is probably the most representative and memorable song of the evening, a golden middle between the slower and more fervently political stuff. They sound great together; what I’d heard in the recording studio was only snippets of what emanates from that stage. It’s danceable, strong sounds, it’s articulate, memorable lyrics and, not least of all, band members with personality instead of a ‘Kerrang-approved’ forehead stamp.

After the Riots are unsigned for the moment, but with a new single out in April (3 Years On) and an album on the way, they won’t be for long. Their next gig is on March 7 at The Motherbar – well worth a trip if you’re feeling too old for The Killers, but not destructive enough for The Sex Pistols.