Album/live: Fiction Plane - Left Side of the Brain
After hearing Two Sisters on a Dutch national radio channel about ten times a day I decided to get my own copy of the complete album. A day later I got invited to the gig this band would be giving in Amsterdam.
Fiction Plane sounds like the Police, but somewhat heavier. The guys must be sick and tired by now of being compared to The Police all the time, but with frontman Joe Sumner, Gordon Sumner’s (aka Sting’s) first born, they’ll probably have to get used to it. The album contains rock and a little bit of reggae and Britpop, all mixed up to their own sound. This makes some tracks sound a bit messy. Drink is one of the tracks where Sumner doesn’t sound like Sting and is absolutely amazing and in my opinion the best track of the entire album.
That same song, performed acoustically, was the best song during the gig. They played their entire album and got the crowd going, mostly so during Two Sisters, Anyone and It’s Lie. Fiction Plane really gave a good gig at the Melkweg, Amsterdam. It was a shame that large parts of the crowd were so distracted by daddy Sting sitting at the balcony and watching his son on stage. Also, mingling in the queue, I got the impression that a lot of people were there to see a copy of The Police and hoping Sting himself would come on stage supporting his son’s band.
Verdict: Album: Entertaining, but not very original. The parts were Sumner doesn’t sound like his father are actually the most interesting, but very rare on this album unfortunately.
Gig: They do know how to get a crowd going and if you’re into their style, you’ll probably love it.