SOULWAX @ Manchester Hop & Grape 12th May 2000

Soulwax. It sort of inspires images of some slightly dodgy and dated, yet funky remixer or something. Something jazzier and glam-er than your everyday 10-a-penny indie band.

Definitely oh-so-glam and scaling high on the funk-o-meter, they are indeed.

Guitarist David Dewaele leaps onto the stage. Shiny shoes. Check. Neatly pressed trousers. Check. Smart jacket and nutty tie. Check. Scruffily messed-up, just-got-out-of-bed hair. Check. The rest of the 5-piece join the stage. Four fifths of the band in uniformly dapper suits, they look quite handsome really. Keyboarder Inge Fliptz sits pretty in a summery flower dress.

The brothers David and singer Stephen are part-time DJ’s and TV presenters in their native Belgium. Here, they are notorious unclassifiable, genre-hoppers. Which makes for an interesting evening. They have it all- the rock, the funk, the soul and all with a touch of glamour, humour and showmanship. They do rock and every derivative possible- loudly and verging close to seriously heavy rock or metal, whilst maintaining that glamourously comical edge. Like on their take on Prince’s "Pop Life". The ‘sex symbol’ himself never sounded as good.

The mic stands are fluorescent tube lights with mics attached and the classy backdrop is adorned with CDs spelling out Soulwax. It’s fantastic, done with style and flair. Soulwax-style.

The band take a breather in the middle and David presents his renowned Casio guitar, encouraging the crowd in a chant of "C-A-S-I-O!!" before shouting "Get me some sponsorship!!" Stephen announces that the this is the part where the audience participate and asks for suggestions of tunes for David to demonstrate on his Casio. He plays cracking samples of "The Final Countdown" and "The Only One I Know".

Disappointingly, they are onstage for less than an hour but they pace themselves through the rock-a-licious "Much Against Everyone’s Advice", a brilliant cover of Prince’s "Pop Life" and an explosive finale of "My Cruel Joke" and "Too Many DJs", with its human beatbox in the form of David, which Soulwax somehow manage to make unbelievably cred. With a twinkle of irony in their eye, of course. Towards the end, a mad moshpit forms, and you could be forgiven for thinking that you were at a Slipknot gig instead.

They return for one last song, "Chickenpox Rock". Definitely infectious. Definitely rock. Severely Soundgarden-a-like heavy material. Better then Belgian chocolates. Give your soul a shine.

By Laila Hassani l.s.hassani@uclan.ac.uk