Mallory Knox @ UEA
Does it matter that Knox aren’t really that new or interesting?
It’s quite clear that Mallory Knox have every intention of turning this fleeting visit to Norwich into an event to remember. A white curtain hides the stage and displays a countdown that gets the crowd revving their engines before dropping amid a chorus of high screams and away we go. Lined up below a Union flag (this is, lest we forget, a homecoming tour) and two towering neon MK signs, the quintet rip into their penultimate night on the road.
It’s hard to believe but Knox have actually been around for a while now. Over half a decade since forming they’ve settled into their sound and work as band at ease in their surroundings. There’s a driven assuredness about things as Mikey Chapman slinks around the stage, all heartthrob and slenderness powering his America-tinged vocal into a microphone behind moody smoke effects. The whole operation is slick, though perhaps a bit too clean and lacking any kind of alternative complexity and, ultimately, substance.
The LCR is on their side, though. Wilfully engaged from start to finish, wide eyed young rockers throw fists and devil horns into the air like balls at a juggling convention. Does it matter that Knox aren’t really that new or interesting? That everything here wouldn’t look out of place in 2004? Not a jot, apparently. They pack a punch and can give a room of fans something to yell about. That’ll do.
