Opening up the night’s live music, Rhodesia provided brilliant vindication of the votes they received in our new bands competition. We could not be more proud. Poppy Hayashi’s haunting vocals give an ethereal edge to diverse backing music styles that are very different to anything else we’ve heard recently. There is bleakness in the sound but the overall experience is somehow still uplifting – and that is a real art. Hopefully this will prove the first of many well-received gigs for a brave outfit that is still there for the signing.
From the ensuing meditative state, our other competition winners Gold Teeth were the perfect awakening. We consider ourselves very lucky to have enjoyed their company, given the astonishing level of success they have already begun to enjoy. This band’s star is very much on the rise and a support slot on Athlete’s current tour should see them come to prominent media attention over the coming weeks. They present a rousing, upbeat twang that the summer’s radio waves may end up carrying like a talisman. It’s almost like encountering an early Blur with post-Gorillaz awareness and afro-beats sprinkled on top. Vocalist Joe DaCosta’s delivery is friendly and engaging, while guitarist Nick Rowson brings a distinct personal style to the band’s well-observed traditional references.
The intrepid resolve of attendees was then given final reward by the confirmed prowess of KASMS, a band so non-linear in its approach that it was always fated to become one of our personal favourites. We loved them from the start and this evening’s set showed how far they have developed in sound and confidence over the past year. Their performance, at best, is like a mad cooking session where the finest ingredients get smashed together then thrown outwards with centrifugal force.
The apotheosis of such expression on the night was when front woman Rachel Callaghan ended up on top of the drums, tried to jump off but got her mic lead caught and trashed half the kit. We pay tribute to her for that, as we do to the various members of the audience who treasured their own resulting bruises. The band’s reception at the end was a wholehearted endorsement of such ‘toil and trouble’.
Which left only one small problem. It turned out that, despite their somewhat chaste reputation, after a few vodkas, whiskies and tequilas our pandas were anybody’s – much like the rest of the SUPERSWEET retinue. Three of the pandas are still AWOL around the Hoxton Street vicinity, last seen entering a reputed crack den in a preternatural tryst with a horse.
Words: Alderson
Photography: Barry Macdonald, Burak Cingi, Chris Fleet, Eleanor Harvey, Elinor Jones, Holly Erskine, Poonperm Paitayawat. Rachel Bevis