Yo La Tengo often prove to be a spectacle band. Not in the showy Flaming Lips-bouncing-around-in-giant-balls-while-fireworks-go-off kind of way. A tad more understated than that. Previous shows have seen them bring out giant roulette wheels and play songs in accordance with what comes up. Great.
Three sisters proud of their Watford roots, Emily, Jessica and Camilla Staveley-Taylor make up The Staves and we're excited to see whether their live performance matches up to their enticing recordings; something they exceed in doing. Pre-show the air of anticipation is palpable as the venue is full to bursting with people who clearly harbour a lot of love for the band.
Walking into the Blind Tiger in Brighton for the start of the Afriganza Festival, the smell of hot spicy yam curry alongside rice, okra and sweet potatoes greets us, providing a happy antidote from the bitter cold outside. Over four days the festival will feature African music, workshops, and films in a huge AfroBeat celebration, and in light of it's success Blind Tiger have announced that Afriganza will be a new monthly event from June.
To sell out two nights in a row at Shepherd's Bush Empire little more than six months after releasing a debut LP is an impressive enough feat. Throw into the mix a Southbank Award for Best Pop, won just one day before tonight’s show, and it’s easy to understand why Jessie Ware is clearly giddy with excitement and gratitude for the duration of tonight’s performance.
Whether or not tonight’s set is part of a concentrated attempt by Susanne Sundfør to ‘crack’ the UK is unclear, but with the instant accessibility of songs like ‘White Foxes’ synthesising with her established eccentricities throughout excellent new album The Silicone Veil, it’s not a huge leap to say she has been successful in her mission.
It’s only a year since Al Spx released her startlingly well-formed and engrossing debut LP I Predict A Graceful Expulsion, but the young artist is already starting to show signs of restlessness about showcasing the old material. This generally manifests itself positively, especially through the promisingly enrapturing smattering of new material offered up tonight. Of course, there is undoubtedly something a little deflating about hearing her admit how sick she is of singing minor-detonation show stoppers like ‘Winter Solstice’. But the discomfort largely translates as a creative eagerness to move onto the next chapter of a career which has started on an arrestingly good first step. Certainly, tonight’s set sounds like the cream of a lesser artist’s whole discography, not a selection of songs from a debut along with a few new ones, too.
