Category: Music

VV Brown

Scala
27.11.08

Pushing through the doors to the Scala, it was a shock to see the venue already packed out. Having seen VV Brown‘s name around quite a lot of late, it shouldn’t have been that much of a shock, and after a couple of songs, the shock had dissipated completely.

The Londoner has a voice that will no doubt be lazily compared to Amy Winehouse, but, with the help of her animated backing group, Brown raised the roof with her soulful tones, finishing up with a swinging track which she then turned into a reggae anthem to leave the crowd baying for more. It is easy to see why she is getting all the hype, she’s surely destined for big things.

Then came the main event – the ever predictably unpredictable Ida Maria. The Norweigan songstress had fallen foul of the dreaded lurgy before the show which presented us with a somewhat subdued performance, not helped by the completely stationary crowd. Don’t let that fool you though, her stage presence, even when simply standing and singing is second-to-none and her banter with the crowd always kept the atmosphere lighthearted and fun.

“If you want, you can sing along on the chorus,” she said to her audience. “But be quiet during the verses, that’s for me to steal all the spotlight.” With an attitude as breezy and a face as smiley as Ida’s it’s impossible not to like her. And when she finally saw people in the crowd moving for her anthems Better When You’re Naked and Oh My God, she let loose herself, spinning around and giving us the energy we’d gotten used to over the past year.

The stand out moment though was the first song of the encore when a solitary Ida stood on the centre of the stage, bass in hand, delivering as gravelly a vocal as she could muster with a brilliant bluesy number. Even when she’s ill, she is a joy to watch. More of the same in 2009 please.

Abjekt.

LA2
25.11.08

Other than a brief UK visit around Give It A Name this year, Finch haven’t been here to tour proper in a considerable amount of time. From what I remember, they had a reputation of being somewhat shambolic and selfish live, refusing to play obvious crowd pleaser ‘Letters To You’ and, by most reports, failing to put on a decent performance.

As the band takes to the stage at the LA2, there are certainly echoes of Finch’s first incarnation with several setbacks in the first song. It’s almost as if it’s their very first time playing together since they broke up all those years ago with guitar tunings mid-song, guitar strap mishaps, builders’ style bums being bared to the audience and a general sense of confusion. Singer Nate seems self involved and not at all concerned with the salivating crowd he could so easily command. At several points during their set he kneels with his back to the audience and it’s as if he’s serenading a beer can on the drum riser.

Having said that, Finch have certainly grown to realise that a cunning variety of classic hits and stunning new material is what keeps everyone interested. The band plays a hefty set including all the golden oldies such as ‘Letters To You‘ and ‘Perfection Through Silence‘ and they put every bit of energy into the songs they’ve written since reuniting this year including a stirring performance of ‘Daylight‘.

Nate’s energy is almost childlike but their encore really demonstrates maturity, particularly in its selection of songs which include a beautifully understated rendition of ‘Ender‘ and an explosive closing of the evening with ‘What It Is To Burn‘. When Nate does turn his attention to the eager mass of people hanging on his every lyric, the effect is quite magical with enthusiasm dripping from every pore of every body present. It’s just a shame that this occurrence was all too infrequent during what was, despite being a tad ropey in places, an enthralling set of expertly crafted songs spanning the band’s career.

Winey G.

Hoxton Bar and Grill
London 19.11.08

I had heard a few tunes from Kenan Bell on his myspace page, heard they were doing a gig and thought – “yeah im up for that”. So I grabbed a sidekick and stepped to Hoxton Square to catch their live show. Unfortunately, I arrived early and saw a couple of ill thought out bands play, one was particularly shocking and left me looking at my watch thinking “hope I don’t miss the last tube” but I’m glad I stayed in the end.

Kenan Bell, to my surprise appeared onstage as a 6 piece band, drumkits, keyboards, guitars plus Kenan, the emcee. No messing around here, straight in to the set! The vibe was a tight mish-mash of influences. They are “band of the day” on the Guardian newspapers website, and “filed” him with KRS-1, A Tribe Called Quest and Mos Def , but to be honest, the comparison is as close to them as NY is to KB’s native LA. If they had given them a proper listen they would have heard influences closer to the The Pharcyde and MGMT with a firm nod to the essence of 80’s NewWave, but meh, that’s why your reading this on Crossfire, and not some broadsheet trying to be down with the kids!

The musical makeup here is very quick to change from a synth based sound to subtle guitar backed tracks. Lyrically I think Bell is a little depressed, well, disappointed I think is a better word, disappointed with society and covers this in Enjoy, cutting himself as the “loneliest crusader”. The slightly melancholy flow is perfect for a remix and they pull off The Smiths – This Night Has Opened My Eyes to great applause. If Morrissey was responsible for indie music in the 80s, his “I’m not happy, I’m not sad” mantra is something Kenan Bell firmly embodies on the imaginative Save your Life.

As the set speeds on its plain to see they are used to a larger crowd, but the stage presence starts to get looser and the band definitely had more fun with the crowd. The audience is now firmly theirs as they run through the tracks from their current EP. Geeking out with the sing/song structure of Celebrity and the open, honest Good Day shows perfectly his range of sound is as wide as the emotions they explore. The live show is studio tight, with plenty of adlib to keep the organic feel, the band starts to catch up with Kenan’s energy and raise the tempo a notch to finish off the night in rowdy style.

It’s definitely worth looking out for his EP and I am sure an album will follow in 2009 as this is too fresh to miss out on and certainly worth the two hours of night buses home! Get on it:

Philip Procter