Live Review: LEEFEST 2016

Words originally for Vapour Trail Blog

On an intense July weekend, Kendal Calling, Standon Calling and Y Not filled the fields of Britain with a wash of sweat, piss and rock music, but it was a rural corner of Kent that drew our attention. That corner, my friends, is Leefest. Now in its tenth year, the three-day bash started out as the brainchild of one Lee Denny, who aged sixteen threw a festival in his back garden when his parents went on holiday. This year, some of the country’s hottest new musical talents joined a uniquely immersive programme of live performance, art, theatre and more. Here’s what we made of it all.

Live Review: Florence + The Machine/Kendrick Lamar @ British Summer Time Festival, Hyde Park

Words originally for DIY Magazine

Florence + the Machine / Kendrick Lamar
Photos: Sarah Louise Bennett

Sound issues make for a shaky start for Blood Orange, but the tropical groove instilled in ‘You’re Not Good Enough’ and ‘Uncle ACE’ gets things underway, Dev Hynes strutting coolly around the main stage. A short hike finds Georgia churning out far dirtier sounds: her dystopian drum and bass noise provides a welcome oasis from all the corporate tat and floral décor, before Poliça, who pack a punch with their dual drum kit set-up and Channy Leaneagh’s icy vocals bewitching on every note.

Not even a biblical opening of the heavens can rain on Jamie xx’s parade. The superstar DJ / all-round swell guy plays to a wall-to-wall audience, despite brewing storm clouds above. It’s the perfect warm up for what’s to come; the Skepta version of ‘I Know There’s Gonna Be (Good Times)’ is a rehearsal in rhyme spitting for all the Kendrick fans, and a ballsy spin of ‘You’ve Got the Love’ (The xx remix) serves only to whet our appetites rather than upstage tonight’s headliner. ‘Loud Places’ ices the rainbow cake of the ‘In Colour’ experience in the way that only a summer anthem can.

A late start due to weather does little to subside the buzz around Kendrick Lamar. Hell, Hyde Park could flood to chest height and no one would bat an eyelid right now, as a jazz-funk cacophony heralds the arrival of a living legend. In jeans and a red, white and blue sweater he looks London, but oozes LA. Hits come thick and fast with little room to breathe: ‘m.A.A.d city’ frames the set in two parts while ‘Swimming Pools (Drank)’, ‘Bitch, Don’t Kill My Vibe’ and ‘Money Trees’ keep BST jumping for a solid hour. With the music comes a showman in his element. His devilish charm plays off any notion that the age-old left side / right side crowd-play he employs is a rehearsed performance, here it’s more a vibe-off between star and audience. ‘King Kunta’ and ‘Alright’ bring a strategic high to the end of a headline-worthy appearance.

A year ago, thereabouts, Florence Welch found herself in the unique position of topping the Glastonbury bill with just days’ notice. It went pretty well. Twelve months later, she’s closing ‘How Big How Blue How Beautiful’ with a hometown show just a stone’s throw away from her first Florence + The Machine gig. “I don’t remember it because I was so drunk,” she quips, between sprinting barefoot from one end of the stage to the other.

Her show is tight and awe-inspiring throughout, from those powerful vocals to the vivid flashes of nature on the screens behind. ‘What the Water Gave Me’ is a sombre opener, but proves surprisingly easy for the crowd to jump to, while ‘Rabbit Heart’ ups both tempo and spirits, when “as many people as possible” are encouraged to get on shoulders. An astonishing intimacy can be felt in Hyde Park, no more so than for ‘How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful’. It’s not a stretch to imagine Florence cramming her eleven-piece backing band back into a tiny pub in East London. And yet, in places the show is weary. Ad-libs debuted months ago are used once more, the setlist is short and predictable. Then again, perennials ‘You’ve Got the Love’ and ‘Dog Days Are Over’ draw proceedings to a close with a perfect sing-along moment under a picturesque London sunset.

The lid is closed, then, on the ‘How Big…’ era, with style and elegance. Go get some shuteye, Florence.

diymag.com

Live Review: Avec Sans @ The Waterfront Studio, Norwich

Words originally for Outline Magazine

L-R: Jack St. James, Alice Fox

It’s been a bad week, hasn’t it? The weather’s been rubbish, Coldplay are headlining Glastonbury and I’m told there was some big political debate going on as well that people aren’t happy about. So for a much needed music fix, where better to head than The Waterfront Studio for a dash of electro-pop from Avec Sans, and a few local faces too.

A little too much Pyramid Stage iPlayer action meant that I missed Ginny Dix and Abigail Blake, but the solo pianist and harpist have both proven themselves mesmerising at past performances. Heading up the support bill, Maya Law brings her soulful blend of R&B guitar/vocals to a crowd made up of friends and fans. Original material and a signature Amy Winehouse cover flow smoothly from one to another, Law’s sultry vocals enticing the room with a beautiful simplicity throughout. If you haven’t caught this rising talent live yet, stick her on your list, she’s fab.

Tonight’s headliners Avec Sans are unmistakeably sleek in their image. Fronting the duo Alice Fox sports a classic pop star look, an impressive platinum bob serving as the focal point of her appearance. Jack St James flanks her on stage within a three-sided structure of cables, buttons, a laptop and a myriad of touch pads from which he produces the bulk of the band’s music. He wears all black including a baseball cap, in case he needs to swing a bat at any point during the show, I guess. As the pounding introduction to When You Go cuts through the smoke, the front row of his devices light up in an LED rainbow, like vintage video games. It’s an electro-pop performance at its purest, a modern take on 80s clichés running pristinely through the moody synths and the stage décor. An almost unrecognisable take on Bon Iver’s Perth comes second, replacing folky pomp with a striking flood of echoes and churning sequencers.

Original material sees the performance quickly lose its novelty, however. The mid-noughties pop sound that the group encapsulates – which would sit neatly next to the likes of Little Boots, Goldfrapp and Sophie Ellis-Bextor – is polished and professional, but simply ten years behind the curve. Furthermore, St James’ repeated slamming down on artificial instruments flushes out every sense of depth that the songs have on record. It’s the Jack Garratt paradigm – decent tunes, no performability. The sound is two-dimensional: loud and embracing yes, but flat and uninteresting in every other aspect. Poor crowd interaction from Fox, who stares blankly into the middle distance when she’s not singing, makes for a dull experience for those of us less familiar with the group’s material.

By the end of the set the audience are clearly losing interest. Shiver is a generic and soupy, hinting at great dance anthem potential but turning out more like a half-melted ice sculpture than a glitzy marble statue. Heartbreak Hi is a wispy copy of the studio version, but with weaker vocals. And another cover – this time Kate Bush’s unbeatable masterpiece Running Up that Hill – closes proceedings in a frankly blasphemous mess that points fully and unreservedly to the ‘one trick pony’ label.

I wouldn’t write Avec Sans off completely, but it’s a poor first Norwich show from these middle-of-the-road performers.

Twitter: Avec Sans / Maya Law

Soundcloud: Avec Sans / Maya Law

Live Review: Let's Eat Grandma @ OPEN, Norwich

Words originally for Outline Magazine

Where have you been living if you don’t know Let’s Eat Grandma, the two Norwich teenagers with a passion for all things weird? Launching their debut album I, Gemini in style at Open, it’s plain to see that these two bright young things are on the cusp of something big.

Ginny Dix is our opening act. Her solo vocal/piano performance is delivered nervously, but a lathering of audio effects nudges the set from generic to intriguing. It’s downbeat and beautiful, for fans of Shura and Daughter. Up next is Birds of Hell, a wonderfully interesting character (a.k.a. Pete, as he introduces himself). Visually he could be Jesse Hughes portrayed by Noel Fielding, or something equally abstract yet dashing. And the music is just as whimsical. Snake noises, bells on shoes and samples of dead relatives are all twisted together in a pastiche of temperamental storytelling, made real through a dry voice and a dryer wit. Different tones and narratives accompany each song, but a downbeat, spoken-word drawl is present throughout. Leonard Cohen, John Cooper Clarke, and Kate Tempest are all valid comparisons, but in this reviewer’s opinion you’d really be best to catch him live and decide for yourself.

Headliner time can’t come soon enough for Let’s Eat Grandma’s first hometown performance in far too long. Tonight, Open brims with fans new and old, all united with anticipation for the show we’re about to see. As the unmistakeable drum clicks of Deep Six Textbook pound into the room, 16-year-old Rosa and 17-year-old Jenny fall into character with heads hung low and faces obscured by thick hair. They don matching outfits head to toe, the images of space splattered across their tops adding to the mystical ambience. A row of friends and fans are sat eagerly just in front of the stage, creating a wonderfully intimate atmosphere.

Eat Shiitake Mushrooms is led into seamlessly. The intricacy of the track feels muted slightly in a live setting; the synths and sequencers that bubble and mix organically on record have a much more 2D feel tonight, but this quality does add to the cosiness of tonight’s performance. And, with delightfully amusing stage personas coupled with astonishing musical skill, no one could say it’s not entertaining. Between the two of them, keyboards are played, recorders make an appearance, there’s a mandolin, a glockenspiel, guitars and a drum-kit, any of which can crop up at a moment’s notice. The girls run back and forth around the stage multiple times per song, sharing instruments and interacting in ways seen rarely in any popular bands today. There’s a little roughness around the edges in places, but the ornate control and choreography these two young performers hold is truly awe-inspiring.

Rapunzel closes act one with a bolder sound than on the album, courtesy of a little kick-drum action, before Sink leads into the second half of the show, with a more hip-hop feel compared to the ethereal flurry that we’ve experienced so far. It gets one of the best reactions as the most ‘pop’ sounding song in the set, as well as one of the more lyrically driven. The epic monster that is Donnie Darko closes the show in a thirteen-minute extravaganza of beeps and blips, layered gradually over one another with guitar murmurs and keyboard buzzes mixing in accordingly. The duo conduct their signature handclap routine, when they’re not lying perfectly still on the floor. Or twiddling with pedals and boxes sat cross-legged and seemingly oblivious to the audience, making for a bizarrely voyeuristic experience, as if we’re all sat together on a bedroom floor trying to make music together. It’s beautiful and fun and absolutely unlike anything else you’ll see in the pop scene today.

The show ends with a synchronised “thank you” – the pair’s only adlib in the whole performance – before rapturous hometown applause marks the end of a truly special evening. 

Facebook: Let's Eat Grandma / Birds of Hell 

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Live Review: Lisbon @ The Waterfront Studio, Norwich

Words originally for Outline Magazine

Newcastle newcomers Lisbon have found themselves on the fringes of mainstream success with a string of fruity singles boosting the hype around their impressive touring schedule. But after a string of dates in January, the four piece hit up Norwich on their latest leg of touring for a notably less exciting evening.

VYNCE (that’s with a ‘y’, as we’re reminded to an almost patronising degree) are our main support. The Merseyside quartet describe themselves on Facebook as “poppy indie”, a vague and cringe-worthy phrase which more than summarises their performance tonight. Their watered down sugar pop is catchy and performed tightly, but originality is clearly a concept lost to them. And where other acts from the northeast – see Clean Cut Kid for example – get by on charisma, VYNCE also lose marks. Frontman Peter Pegasiou just about looks the part with his hair in a bun and a leopard print shirt hanging from his shoulders, but his lifeless stage presence adds to the long list of things that bore me about this act.

A gig is not good when the music is the least enjoyable aspect. Indiscernible pop nonsense is what Lisbon deliver tonight by the bucket load, the singles Shark and Vice barely standing out against the Bastille meets Coasts meets X Factor brand of lowest common denominator noise that these guys produce. There’s a song called Banana for crying out loud. It’s introduced by the question, “Are you ready for Banana?” How can I take this seriously? Bless Matthew Varty for giving showmanship a go, though. Leading the four piece, he nails the ad-libs, getting a clap along going here, an arm wave there, dishing out his best thanks between tracks. But too much of the performance is offered by lights and effects, which compensate for the bland music we’re subjected to.

It’s worth pointing out that the majority of Lisbon’s fan base are young teenagers who, on a school night in mid May, will be stuck at home stressing about GCSEs and other such trivial pursuits. So congratulations Lisbon, you’ve also failed on the scheduling part of the job, but I’ll let you off because you yourselves look like you should still be sat in a musty gym somewhere trying to recall whether mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell. Sorry kids, but a flashy stage introduction and coloured lights that sync to the beat of your kick drum isn’t enough to save your painfully empty show tonight. Come back during the summer holidays and maybe give it another shot. 

Facebook: Lisbon / VYNCE

Twitter: Lisbon / VYNCE

Live Review: The Joy Formidable @ OPEN, Norwich

Words originally for Outline Magazine

L-R: Rhydian Davies, Ritzy Bryan, Matt Thomas

Welsh trio The Joy Formidable made their musical return this year after three years away with Hitch, an album that’s been bogged down in poor reviews and lack of interest. Tonight they find themselves at OPEN, Norwich, where it seems absolutely anything could happen.

The Greatest Light is the Greatest Shade is an explosive opener, its repetitive hook engulfing the room as Ritzy Bryan, Rhydian Davies and Matt Thomas bound on stage to take their positions. Their eyes are wide; Bryan and Davies jolt and jerk like encaged animals and wield their instruments like weapons, firing out gargantuan riffs over Thomas’ vicious drumming. OPEN is by no means full, but what space there is left is swiftly flooded with screams, buzzes and crashes.

Little Blimp and This Ladder is Ours – from 2013’s ‘Wolf’s Law’ – sound as daisy fresh as they do youthfully passionate. The orchestral element they host on record is mostly lost, save for the odd piano tinkle from Davies, but a more mature rock essence arises in its place. It becomes clear just how musically expert the trio are as they dip in and out of intense concentration, commanding their beastly sound with great ease and passion. Technical difficulties arise once or twice but they’re dealt with swiftly and smoothly.

A reminiscent tone is held for most of the show. Heartfelt comments about “great memories of Norwich” come alongside gracious thanks for sticking with the band after their time away. It’s an emotional performance, made all the more moving by the powerful vigour that every track carries. Wolf’s Law starts slowly before erupting into an upbeat rock number, flowing seamlessly into the bassy fuzz monster that is Maw Maw Song.

The Last Thing On My Mind, from ‘Hitch’, is a slap in the face to any middle-of-the-road music reviewers who haven’t already been shot down on social media. It’s a hurricane of silky vocals and fierce, spiky guitar prickles, pointing towards the end of the show with a mighty reprise to end. The Leopard and the Lung closes the main set and there’s a sense of anxiety in the room that we’ll hear no more.

But an encore comes, after a painfully tense break no less. Bryan and Davies perform The Brook acoustically from within the audience in a magical moment, serving as solid proof that underneath all the spiralling feedback, there’s true raw talent in this band. They hop back on stage for the enormous Radio of Lips, before Whirring closes a mighty comeback show in deservedly merciless fashion; Davies leaps on the drum kit, Bryan triumphantly sticks her guitar through the ceiling and the trio’s enormous stage personas reach new heights. They exit stage as excited as they entered, sufficiently proving that The Joy Formidable are back, and they’re here to stay.

Hitch by The Joy Formidable is out now.

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Official Website

Live Review: The Cut IV @ OPEN, Norwich

Words originally for Outline Magazine

Peach Club live at The Cut

Every so often, Outline Magazine and BBC Introducing like to team up with OPEN to put together a bill of some of our region’s best rising talent. Tonight, four such acts take to the stage to wow a ready audience with their best tunes.

Peach Club have the difficult task of kicking things off, but the group more than manage with their shouty feminist punk numbers. Fronting the quartet is Katie Revell, a ball of energy and enthusiasm with no reservations about getting her audience to “move – it’s not fair for me to do all the work”. Her vocals are raw and fierce, matching Charlie Hart’s gritty guitars and Becca Wren’s drumming, with Amanda MacKinnon completing the aural immersion on bass. Tracks from their EP ‘The Bitch Diaries’ sound rougher than they do on record, but pack a punch with their honest lyrics and jerky tempo changes.

Another new act, Dog’s Dinner, are second on. The group have a darker, more sinister sound than their predecessors but perform with a similarly in-your-face attitude, frontman Josh Whitmore-Lyons routinely jumping off stage to rip the slightly tense atmosphere apart. A looping video clip acts as their backdrop, showing fuzzy TV static and vintage video game excerpts, a pointer that these guys don’t take themselves too seriously. The music is mournful but aggressive, similar to Drenge and Jamie T but with a psychy twist that almost certainly points Nirvana-wards. Dead Dog stands out for being the catchiest number, and Chlorine ends the fun in a sweat-fest of chemical catharsis.

Rory McVicar, tonight’s penultimate act, draws quite a crowd, so as a first time listener I’m intrigued to see what his performance holds. The singer/songwriter is backed by an all-star ensemble consisting of members of Magoo, in a line up that “may only exist for one night only”, and what turns out to be a stunning set of Britpop-esque numbers. A grand rock sound tinges each song, lyric driven with a sentimental poetry, which draws in fans old and new. A broken string followed by a second sees McVicar turn to a more “experimental” style – I get the impression the songs don’t normally sound how they do tonight – but how they do sound is neat, twee and thoroughly entertaining. After the youthful, aggressive energy of our first two acts, the downbeat-ness is a pleasant change, and as McVicar puts it, “slow songs sometimes make an evening”. Couldn’t agree more.

Our headliners are Mega Emotion, a trio who describe themselves as, “two girls drumming over a sequenced beat; a guy screaming his guts up”. They’re certainly not wrong, showing all of those things as they dive straight into Brains, a messy cacophony of bleeps and bangs, completed by droning vocals. The three-piece wear ‘mumus’, long robe-like garments which adds a bizarre sense of ritualism to the Django Django/tUnE-yArDs reminiscent music, but they seem to be more of a bother than anything else. The performance is slightly out of time and the soup of spacey alt-rock wubs, groans and clicks into an indistinguishable noise in some places. But to deny the group’s technical skills wouldn’t be fair – all three members play percussion as well as guitars and keyboards interchangeably, producing an incredibly unique sound compared to a lot of their local contemporaries. If tonight is about showcasing up-and-coming local musicians then Mega Emotion tick all the right boxes, but they need to straighten out their act if they want to go to the next level. For a group with such an obscure aesthetic I’ve no doubt they’ve got what it takes, but tonight seems like an off night, leaving me disappointed.

And so ends the third edition of The Cut, a fantastic night by all accounts, offering a wonderful display of hot new talent from our very own region. Here’s to the next one!

Facebook: Outline Magazine / BBC Introducing Norfolk

Twitter: Outline Magazine / BBC Introducing Norfolk

Live Review: Rat Boy @ The Waterfront, Norwich

Words originally for Outline Magazine

Rat Boy is the most unexpected breakthrough act of this year. The garage meets hip-hop project is the brainchild of Essex born-and-bred Jordan Cardy who after a spot on the NME Awards Tour this year, and a top 10 place in the BBC’s annual Sound Of… poll, has developed a superstar worthy fanbase from just one mixtape and a couple of singles. Pre-doors at The Waterfront, a mighty queue of teenage obsessives reaches half way down King Street, decked head to toe in a cornucopia of skater gear, dirty sneakers and more paisley than a 70s furniture showroom. But it’s hard to tell just yet whether tonight's one for the history books, or just the result of a buzz band being blown out of proportion.

Two acts support, Cosmo Pyke being the first. Besides his fantastic name, he’s an excellent guitarist, playing a bluesy, reggae tinged half hour alongside a backing drummer. His vocals are rich and deep and every song has a dusky rhythm, comparable to Michael Kiwanuka or Wretch 32 in places.

Skaters are the jam in tonight’s scuzzy rock sandwich. From New York, the post-punk five-piece have been on my ‘to see’ list for several years, and they out do every expectation. Deadbolt opens and hits the roof and latest single The Loner follows, with a boozy, Fratellis meets FIDLAR feel. The audience lap up the high velocity bangers like wasps to an ice cream, older material like Miss Teen Massachusetts and I Wanna Dance (But I Don’t Know How) getting the best reactions. But cuts from their upcoming Rock and Roll Bye Bye EP show a more developed side to the group, bringing out an 80s inspired sound with the addition of drum machines and wailing guitar riffs. Head On To Nowhere ends a riotous nine-song firestorm of gritty bangers from across the pond.

I often ponder as to which tune I’d like to walk on stage to if I could play gigs. Rat Boy nail it with their choice tonight; Drake’s ‘Hotline Bling’ followed by an arrogantly long sample of police sirens. Which does somehow sum them up perfectly. Cardy and his three band mates are greeted like popstars, the screams and waves only subsiding when a barrage of garage noise hits us deep and hard. “We’re gonna do Move”, Cardy commands, “let’s see some circles”, and the baying horde of jumped-up teenagers obeys more than readily. It’s chaos from then on, the waves of moshers and crowd-surfers holding out strong for the whole show.

A lot of new material is performed, and song titles are difficult to pick up. Not least because the set is delivered as one long mixtape-style block of sound, with the odd interlude thrown in to give the band time to switch instruments (one of which consists of a fire alarm recording that not even the band seem to know whether is real or not). But through the soup of sticky samples and anti-establishment lyrics, a sort of artistry can be observed. Where Rat Boy’s music released so far is mostly lyric led, cuts from an upcoming debut album point towards a more sonic focus. There’s essences of reggae, ska, hip-hop and grunge all tied together by some retro keyboard sounds and woozy effect pedals. Not that the audience would care – they’re too busy being shepherded off stage by venue security. Save for the odd kid who’s lucky enough to be rescued by Cardy, and offered a seat next to him for a song or two.

The set does seem to trail off in places, Cardy’s lack of showmanship a cause in part, although he’s far more confident than when the group last played here with Circa Waves. But fan favourites like Sportswear and Left 4 Dead are positioned almost strategically to re-grab our attentions. From the back of the room, the sight is that of how a teen rock gig should look. Silhouettes of arms frantically waving (plus the odd pair of legs flailing upwards) puncture through the sweaty cloud that sits comfortably in the middle distance and it’s clear that tonight is as much about the fans as it is the band. The atmosphere fizzes consistently, as if every single person here tonight wouldn’t have missed it for the world.

S-C-U-M leads into an encore of Sign On and Fake ID back-to-back, culminating in an absolute riot as the band hurl themselves into the crowd. Bits of cardboard cutouts and a precarious looking skateboard are handed to fans, before the sweaty four-piece scamper away triumphantly.

To call Rat Boy the future of British music would be more than an oversight at this point. But Jordan Cardy’s remarkable ability to transform what could easily become a novelty act into a serious musical project is pretty spectacular. Whether he can keep this up in the future remains to be seen, but with a summer schedule jam packed with festival appearances around the corner, don’t expect the hype to die down any time soon.

Move by Rat Boy is out now.

Facebook: Rat Boy / Skaters

Twitter: Rat Boy / Skaters

Live Review: Mystery Jets @ The Waterfront, Norwich

Words originally for Outline Magazine

L-R: Kapil Trivedi, Blaine Harrison, Jack Flanagan, Will Rees

Anyone who’s been a music fan in the last decade will have had a brush or two with Mystery Jets, the mop-haired pretty-boys from London who soundtracked most of the noughties with their delightful indie jangles. But after a few years off and with a new line-up partnering a more mature sonic presence, the foursome are making their way back up the pecking order. Complete with cake and party hats, they came to Norwich Waterfront for a celebratory blowout, featuring new cuts and golden oldies.

London outfit The Big Moon support. It’s their first visit to our humble city and they’re on early, but after a year on the road with everyone from Ezra Furman to The Maccabees, the quartet’s act is more than ship-shape for supporting purposes. Cupid is their latest single, a bouncy, spunky affair that translates fantastically from record to a live setting. Nothing Without You is upbeat and playful, as is a cover of Madonna’s Beautiful Stranger, complete with screeching riffs and deal-with-it tempo changes. Better than the original? Duh. Noise rock elements meet angelic harmonies on The Road, before Sucker brings a grungey close to a phenomenal debut Norwich performance. The Big Moon play The Lake Stage at Latitude this July – go see them, or regret when they make it big time.

Telomere opens both Mystery Jets’ new record ‘Curve of the Earth’, and their set tonight under the cover of darkness. Will Rees’ spine-tingling guitar scratches fit gloriously into the grandeur of Blaine Harrisons’s keys and vocals, which glide the space-age rock number to triumphant heights. Serotonin and Flash a Hungry Smile light up the room in a synth-heavy extravaganza that shows how well these songs have stood the test of time. Bassist-stroke-indie-dreamboat Jack Flanagan is the youngest member (having joined full time in 2014) and is easily the most delightful to watch. Adorned in an ankle length fur coat, he introduces Midnight’s Mirror, “a prog-rock exploration”, and an unexpected highlight of the show. It’s darker and more off-piste than the sunshine pop numbers MJ fans are used to. But it fits perfectly, Rees’ punchy riffs intertwining yet again with Harrison’s keys and Flanagan’s murky bass. Kapil Trivedi completes the group, guiding “an old one”, Half in Love With Elizabeth to a powerful peak of nostalgia and energy from his position on the drums.

More cuts from ‘Curve of the Earth’ fill the second half of the set; Bombay Blue starts downbeat before erupting into a storm of rock fusion, Bubblegum (a strong contender for song of the year) escalating the ambience tenfold. Musically, an almost orchestral tone is adopted as ambitious levels of reverb fuse dazzling synthesizers with modest yet powerful acoustic guitars, a scatty drum machine pitter-pattering comfortably away in the background.

It’s Rees’ birthday, and he doesn’t escape without a sing-along and party hats being passed into the audience. Young Love adds to the celebratory vibe before Alice Springs brings a spellbinding end to the main set. But everyone knows there’s more to come. Someone Purer heads up our encore, made all the more special as it’s the only cut from 2012’s ‘Radlands’ we hear. Harrison asks that his audience sing the first verse to Two Doors Down and we oblige of course, before the band join in to finish, and Flakes concludes our night of fun with a joyous sing-along and arm waves.

Five records in, it may surprise some to see Mystery Jets playing a venue as small as The Waterfront. But make no mistake, ten plus years of gigging has only seen these dream boys grow into experienced and slick performers. And with the incredible new album pushing them towards legendary status, I for one would not be surprised if the best is yet to come. 

Curve of the Earth by Mystery Jets is out now. Read my review here.

Cupid by The Big Moon is out now.

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