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Body Type, MOTH Club, London

  • Published in Live

I don't know what they're putting in the water over in Australia (it's sharks, seriously stay on land if you value your life) but whatever it is, it's making its way over here. 150 years ago if I someone asked you to name one Australian band you'd obviously say something like The Vines, Tame Impala, Cut Copy, Van She but more recent fledgling artists are pushing their way through the breach. You're probably hearing most notably Q award nominees Amyl And The Sniffers who have been playing the SHIT out of London this year with a mix of free/low-priced shows but they're not the only ones making waves and crossing over on them too, keep your eyes on the horizon because something's afoot. 

Youtube algorithm algorithming in the background as I'm ironing (I fucking hate ironing) a crease into my jeans a track pops up which pricks my ears up. Body Type's (@bodytypeband) track 'Stingray' (arguably the best model of the Corvette ever made) charged its way through my speakers and down my hearing tubes. Pausing the song I wasted no time opening my browser to answer my question whether (one you should be asking yourself too) they're playing near me anytime soon? They were indeed at my beloved MOTH in a few weeks. I fired off a message to their label with no luck but after a few days we reached out to the sirens themselves and within hours we'd heard back from their promo-team, we're in. 

Or were we? At the door I hear those fearful words striking terror in the hearts of any and all reviewers, 'you're not on the list'. After a bit of tap dance though I get a thumbs up and moments later I'm inside watching the band's soundcheck. At the bar Sophie (guitars/vocals) and Georgia (Bass/Vocals) shimmy up next to me unassumingly awaiting libations as well. 'Oh wow, you're Sophie and Georgia, right?' I wrench my neck skywards because not only are they giants in music but in real life too. They were and I thanked them for helping facilitate access to the show but they wave this away with a flick of the wrist and a toothy smile thanking me for being there, first class people all the way. 

The girls bow out of our convo and filter through the crowd listening to the support acts and engaging with their friends and fans, which there are a lot of. The gig didn't sell out but the venue was far from empty and even had A-list support from Dream Wife duo Alice and Rakel providing tunes between sets. Opening acts complete, the girls take the stage and form a scrum around Cecil (Percussion) and start to play backs to the crowd one by one turning to face us. What we're met with is a well honed performance full of energy and hidden messages wrapped behind smiles tied together with glances eye locking  members of both the audience and band. You feel yourself wanting to engage and have fun because they are. The group don't work well just because they've rehearsed their music, they are their music and come off more as close friends (gang) than band members. I can't help but notice just how in tune they are with one another. The set is filled with '80s hair metal headbanging showmanship including the classic trope of back to back bass vs guitar shred showdowns between Sophie and Georgia, spoiler alert we're all winners when this goes down. What you can expect these righteous ladies to deliver are the echoes of deeply tense minimal surf scales that'll keep you moving and hanging off every riff seeped in moody tones propped up by lyrics like, 'your tender touches in the night time, I can't sleep' on tracks like 'Insomnia'. Body Type's penetrating performance will overcome and tear down any barriers between you just as it has between them, Annabel (Vocals/Guitar), Sophie and Georgia can often be seen and heard singing in unison or chiming in to support the lead into the chorus, or the chorus itself. 

To say my experience watching Body Type was a fun and enjoyable (getting me out of my seat on more than one occasion) is probably the understatement of the century. I felt a connection, the kind you see between the girls themselves. This teases you out of your shell and over to their camp and it's a look, which I feel personally, really lends itself to not only between band member and audience or band member to band member but is the fundamental underlying property to their unique sound. Some groups you go to see but other groups see you and that's the case with Body Type. If it's not Georgia's cheeky smile, which she flashes at me breaking out of bad ass bass boss mode catching me firing off a snap (turned out blurry, sorry!), it's Sophie's heartfelt message to the audience on their second last song of the night. 'Every ounce of love in our hearts goes out and into every empty space in your hearts'. I'll leave you all with a few lyrics from a track that's on heavy rotation on my playlist currently 'Uma', "All for one, and one for all, I couldn't loose you any longer, I'm naked, shark attack!". Sharks, I knew it. 

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Broncho, MOTH Club, London

  • Published in Live

 

Broncho's stage setup is minimal but it still looks cramped with plenty of trip hazards. Cables are woven like a tapestry all over the stage, there are 2 stacks of Fender amps, bass amps and a drum kit. Ben is missing, along with his equipment, but I'm not sure there would have even be room for him or it. The set starts off with 'All Choked Up' off their latest Bad Behaviour. 

Don't sit down, I need to say something 

I need to say another before I get choked up 
I wanna dig deep and I wanna dig deeper 
Unless you use another way to get choked up 

Their message to the audience (I was sitting down and I'm sorry) and introduction to their set, fitting I think to myself and make a note to note it. The crowd was a buzz, although some people sat no one sat still, but not in that hostile tooth-chipping way...that would come later. Through the first half of the set Ryan, Penny and Nathan are impossible to photograph (using my phone camera). Every shot is blurry because like their audience they can't sit still either. Ryan's shoulders are bouncing up and down as he strums along with his knees like pistons.  Penny's moving and swaying with her audience and long-neck-bass even taking a moment to lean down at one point to dance for someone's phone. Nathan at the back hammers at his drums like a Lichtenstein a-la rat-tat-tat-tat. 

Then about half way through 'Speed Demon' comes on off Double Vanity and the energy shifts from restrained and pleasant tunes to overdrive. I'm hearing distinct similarities to Ty Segall's 'Candy Sam', one of my favourite tunes off Emotional Mugger. The audience has finally been giving the green light to cut loose, and they do. The audience moves en masse and that energy is fed right back to Broncho and they follow up with 'China' then slow the pace down a second with 'Taj Mahal' before they're right back up again with 'Class Historian'. Everyone knows the track because it starts off with Broncho's unique non-lexible stylings, T T T T T T T D D D D D D D, coming over the speakers like an alien transmission waking up a sleeper cell on earth. The audience heeds the call lumbering to and fro like some headless beast, Broncho are all visibly sweating from the effort of non-stop-play-till-you-drop music. There is no end in sight. By the time the 10 year old French Birthday girl (see interview here) has passed out the rest of the audience is still swinging around wildly, their energy and the band's is palpable. Broncho crack out 20 tunes without a break or chatting up their audience. 

Obviously go see Broncho if they're playing near you, beg, borrow and steal to go see them. I don't get paid to say or write that by the way. If you listen to their music and you don't, you're doing yourself a disservice, but that's not how I want to end this article. During our interview Ryan dropped this one quote that really resonated with me but didn't exactly fit into the flow we had going or the line of questioning for that matter either. I didn't want to omit it though and I thought re-locating it to the end of the article as a summation might be best.  Watching Broncho play that evening, listening and re-listening to their music or how they interacted with everyone throughout the night showed me this simple philosophy works. Hopefully it'll help me the next time I find myself on the other side of the velvet rope or curtain. 

Ryan: I'm sort of like, between, act like you've been there before or also I don't expect to be anywhere, it's somewhere that I'm teetering on. I want to be comfortable but I tell myself that I'm supposed to anywhere that I'm at. And then there's also the other side that is I don't expect to be anywhere. 

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