This show was in Sound Savers recording studio in Homerton that is a great sounding room, as it should be, down an alley off Homerton High Street close to where back in the day the South African used to deal the Sputnik in one of the arches close by which made it feel like a trip down memory lane for me in some respects, still it's good that Homerton is finally becoming hip and happening so that the local pubs don't need strippers to survive anymore.
First on were Solution Hours whose pics will need editing to give the band the correct name as I kept thinking they were called Silhouette hours for some reason, don't ask. Anyway they are a pretty fine low-fi duo, who mainly sing about awkward teen angst and not really fancying the people who fancy them for whatever reason.
As they sang about not listening to her or unbearable spots they reminded me of a cross between Try The Pie and Two Nice Girls but with a real Hackney edge to them like they had been listening to Blood and Roses or other 96 tapes style bands from the 80's.
I really liked the song about not leaving a bad taste in your mouth and also the one about there being too many songs. Even if I had trouble believing them on the last song when they sang about being Exhausted as it wasn't that long a set. A cool young duo who are well worth checking out.
Next on were Suggested Friends who were celebrating two years together as a band by having the studio's head honcho play bass with them for the night as the band's normal bass player was unavailable for this show.
Well to my ears Suggested friends sounded like a cross between Tracey Chapman and Joan Armatrading if they both wanted to front Powerpop bands with intelligent lyrics. I really liked the song about rolling your eyes back and they had some very nifty guitar work on the song about the Apocalypse.
Not sure The Chicken will take off as a new dance craze but it really ought to and is seemingly about making sure to take a few risks and not chicken out of too many things and stay true to yourself.???Look The Other Way or whatever it was called sounds like it should be a hit on College radio if such a thing still exists and they should be playing the college circuit.
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They saved their best song for last the quite brilliant and slightly paranoid Guardian News App all about getting scared at the world we are in and what's going on and the feelings of helplessness that abound for many of us when we read the news.
On this showing Suggested Friends album that is due out later this month will be well worth finding and the bands tour to promote it will be worth catching too.
Finally I get to see Eureka California for a second time as the last time I went to see them I showed up after they had already played! Tsk tsk! Still they are back in the UK for another short tour to promote the band's latest single on HHBTM Records Wigwam.
Now I really ought to know more of Marie and Jakes song titles by now but well I recognise most of the songs and they sound damn tight and every bit as good as on record but I'm still guessing at the song titles I'm afraid well that and the total unreadability of my notes.
Either way this was a great set of spiky low-fi indie that I can sing along to while guessing that the opener was about what they want and it was followed by a song about Nuclear war or so my notes claim! Still one of the real highlights was I Bet You Like Julian Cope and of course we love the druid king.
That was followed by what I have down as Why Should I care I don't care but I'm pretty sure they do care. And Jakes guitar was really thrashing and clattering quite brilliantly by this point and I think they then played I Will Write Mine Over Potomac before they closed with what I guessed was called No Days tonight.
No matter what any of the songs were called this was a great sounding set in a cool setting and Eureka California are worth going to see if they come to your town, sorry if this review is slightly shoddy but I saw too many gigs last week.
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