Grouplove @ Hoxton Hall, 03/02/2011

I first heard Grouplove late last year, their song Colours was doing the rounds on a few blogs. I was hooked, what is THIS? I played it on my show and went in search for more and discovered Gold Coast and other tracks and managed to buy the debut EP on amazon. Gold Coast blows my mind every time I listen, I just want more and more of it. I was beyond excited to see on their twitter they would be playing in the UKL. I bought tickets the minute they came out, managing to het tickets 1 and 2.

I ended up riding solo to their gig at Hoxton Hall and sell my ticket to a older Scottish guy who gives me more than I asked for. It is only after selling the ticket that I realised I had tickets 1 and 2 and I sold #1, oh well. The gig geek in me is saddened but I’ll live. The night had sold out as they have been getting a lot of air play, I love being ahead of the curve…

The Hoxton Hall is a lovely little venue in east London, a true gem which I hope will start being used more often, Anna Calvi played a few nights before and I will keep an eye out for more gigs there, check it out if you can.

Grouplove are supported by a young British rock band whose name I don’t catch who play well, the bassist I particular throws some good moves, but they play a set not destined to live in the memory.

The room slowly fills and a large portion of the audience are of an older vintage, I presume a number are the bands’ Brit bassist Sean Gadd’s family and friends. The Scottish guy I’d sold my ticket to takes up a place at the front of the stage, he turns and tells me all about his fave spot at a gig, always on the right of the stage to the left of the leftist speaker. FYI. You may have seen him, short chubby dude with glasses and silver hair. Look out for him, he has a tale or two to tell. He also smuggled in red wine in a juice bottle and proceeded to constantly top up his pint glass. Red lips and booze breath he danced and sang to every song. All hats off to him, old and rockin, I hope I can live up to it!

Grouplove are a band cobbled together through chance meetings and though they may look it to look at, bassist Sean Gadd looks perpetually confused and marches on the spot thudding away at his bass lines, guitarist Andrew Wessen looks like the pro-surfer he is, long blonder hair and the laid back like a deck chair demeanour but he plays his licks like he was born to it, drummer Ryan Rabin is a tall gangly looking fellow who has a look of a US high school jock who learned to beat drums as hard as he could instead of beating up the nerdy kid at school and he can beat a drum with the best. Up front Hannah Hooper and Christian Zucconi exchange looks like cheeky lovers and the chemistry pays off in the songs. Its frontman Zucconi who attracts the most attention though, he sings with all his body and screams with everything in him and stomps and jumps and screams and strums his guitar and feels his song like you want every musician to.

They play every number from their EP as well as a number of other songs I was unaware of, and am glad to hear including Get Giddy which is on the re-released EP and the set lasts a good hour with an encore which isn’t Colours, having ended the main set with it. I am looking forward to seeing them again and getting to know the other songs better too.

Check them out, they’ll soon be at your doorstep.

Metronomy @ Heaven, 01/02/11

Im no NME reader but I do like the award show gigs they organise, a good variety of bands at some good venues and usually with a great line up of support acts. Tonight’s show features CocknBullKid and Giggs.

CocknBullKid has been a round for a few years now, but this is the first I had seen her. She is a pleasant surprise, nice songs with good music but doesn’t really do it for me. If she really breaks as she has yet to do, perhaps with the right songs, she could be pretty successful, its nice, but that’s not always enough. Speech Debelle seemed nice, she even won a Mercury but she has disappeared.

Talking of hyped acts yet to break it, UK rapper Giggs is next, just him and a DJ he doesn’t really fill the stage, he mainly stands on the spot. Giggs made the Sound of 2010 long list but his criminal past has made it hard at times for him to tour. He uses a slow and menacing style, not big brash moves in the style of Dizzee. Again he fails to really get the crowd going, his relative anonymity doesn’t help but the youngsters down the front wave their arms like the crowd in 8 Mile and bop along.

It seems to be a predominantly young crowd, Metronomy are I suppose a Skins style band, good electro infused dancey pop stuff, Nights Out was, is great album, from start to finish with its mix of instrumental and vocal songs, it puts a smile on my face and a skip in my step whenever I put it on. I’ve been to see the band before but they keep me coming back.

Live Metronomy add a great visual aspect to the music with the band members wearing a white light on their chests. The lights flash in time with the music and keep you watching. It was a good opportunity to catch some new tracks from their forthcoming album The English Riviera due out in April.

The band segued new album songs, some of which sound slower and less dancey with a lot of the big hits of Nights Out with a nod to Pip Payne, their often overlooked debut. It was a good night, a chance to move around, but I had to contend with a few idiots, one next to me decided to film most of the songs, in their entirety on his camera. You know the sound is going to come out badly and how many times will he really watch it?

The youngsters at the front threw themselves at the beats like it was their first gig and the likes of “My Heart Rate Rapid”, “Heartbreaker” and “A Thing For Me” got big receptions, even some of the older contingent got dragged into it. That’s the point though surely, I rant about those who stand stock still at gigs, I know some bands are more about the feeling than letting loose but when everyone else is I find it odd when you see others rooted to the spot.

Ending on “Radio Ladio” Metronomy left a heaving Heaven in a sweaty heap, early reports on “The English Riviera” are good, hopefully there are a few dancey numbers for more nights to be like this one.