A Different Glow for Every Window

BBC Radio 1 DJ Huw Stephens presents a live show once a month at a The Social, a bar & music venue located on Little Portland Street in Fitzrovia.  This dingy, crampy little gem of a venue is run by Heavenly Recordings & the Breakfast Group.  The ground floor consists of a bar and seating while the basement tightly packs in an unbelievably small stage (that fits no more than 3 artists at once, including equipment), some seating, restrooms adjacent to the stage, and a bar in the back.

Each month's show consists of a small variety of up-and-coming alternative electronic, rock, experimental, and pop artists from all over the world.  Last night's show featured Sydey-based folk rock quartet, Cloud Control (Infectious Records), Glasgow's experimental/electronic duo, Conquering Animal Sound (unsigned), Leeds' alternative rock quintet, Eagulls (unsigned), and Helsinki's electronic pop sister act, Le Corps Mince de Francoise (Heavenly Recordings).

The basement was darkly lit with red filter lights while the DJs spun a balanced mixture of electronic and alternative rock - imagine: Annie's "Chewing Gum," shortly followed by Tokyo Police Club's "Bambi."  The setting was a personal space in that it was shared, or rather crowded, by show goers as well as the musicians themselves.  

Conquering Animal Sound

At one point during Conquering Animal Sound's set, a group of 5 rowdy less-than-gentle men stumbled through the door, rudely made their way through the crowd, and successfully disturbed the calming ambiance that the Conquering Animal Sound had created with their intricate electronic loops, unique rhythms, and Anneke's soothing vocals/noises.  Luckily the atmosphere was soon recovered.  After taking apart their set, the two band members plopped themselves into a booth where they had been keeping their equipment and luggage, and watched the rest of the show with the audience.

Le Corps Mince de Francoise

 I was also looking forward to seeing Le Corps Mince de Francoise's perform "Something Golden," since I had heard it on Kitsuné Maison Compilation 8 last year, and enjoyed their other releases since then as well.  Unfortunately their live set lacked of crisp cleanliness of studio-edited vocals and beats of recorded tracks.  Mia's awesomely eccentric dance moves and energy didn't make up for the band's washed out sound.   (Some electronic artists just aren't cut out for the stage - LCMDF is one of them.)  The bright side of their set was that they introduced a pretty good new song written by Emma, that had a fair amount of people out of their seats and on the make-shift dance floor.


It was during the next set that I realized the 5 guys from earlier made up the band, Eagulls.  Needless to say, their set was equally, if not more atrocious than their behavior from earlier that night.  The lead singer was flailing about and wailing into the mic (while pounding down Strongbow), the bassist and guitarist were spitting into each others' faces, and the audio feedback was awful.  But despite their terrible (and disgusting) live performance, their recorded tracks are actually pretty good.

Cloud Control

And lastly, the show ended with Cloud Control - a cute folk rock band from Sydney, Australia, that was recently signed to Infectious Records.  This set was probably the highlight of the night - the sound was more than amazing, the vocal harmonies and melodies warmed up the space, and the artists' energy and love for music was evident enough in their performance and interaction with the audience.  I'm looking forward to Cloud Control's 2011 release of their first LP, Bliss Release (though it's quietly suffering from a leak at the moment).


I've always been a fan of small venue shows, and despite the eccentric line up and sound problems, it was by far one of the more interesting and enjoyable show-going experiences I've yet to experience.


simone w