This Is Not TV

However much a mad front man may try and mar the evening with their own antics, when a band is on form you can’t always stop them. The second of Levis’ 5 Night Revue was undoubtedly the highlight as they pulled off another secret gig that had music fans salivating at the opportunity of seeing a big band in a miniscule venue. Foals made a name for themselves with spontaneous house party gigs and Hoxton Hall isn’t much bigger than that. More often than not evenings put together like this include a collection of copycat acts rather than an array of musical tastes and talents such as that which were on display tonight. Foals tied up the evenings proceedings with one of the most energetic sets you will see all year just yards up the road from the Macbeth were crowds had already been entertained by Micachu and Iglu&Hartly.

The bands from Levis’ 4 night revue this time last year have all gone on to make waves in their respective genres, with Foals being the perfect example, and openers Micachu have a lot of work to do if they are to get that far. That said there is no shortage of potential and with a few more songs like the ones they produced in the second half of their set and they would more than justify the hype that already surrounds them. They come over at 100mp like an electronic version of Jamie T’s ‘Pacemaker’ with added ramshackle, not exactly a sign of consistency, but one to watch out for either way.

Hollywood hopefuls Iglu&Hartly have already garnered huge publicity with their opening single ‘In This City’, which probably isn’t a fair representation of their sound. They manage to combine all the best bits of East coast America (I didn’t say they made sense!) circa 1982 with their own exuberant style and do it to great effect. ‘Violent and Young’ is a great live tune and would also make the perfect second single to show the public that whilst they made the place party like it had five more drinks than it actually had there is some hard rocking musical depth here even if it comes with a free slice of cheese.

As sweaty brows were wiped and drinks finished a few lucky fans made the short hop, skip and jump up the road to Hoxton Hall were Foals, on the back of one the years great albums ‘Antidotes’, were ready to send everybody home smiling, if not slightly battered and bruised as well.

A year ago the edgy Oxford rockers were one of the main attractions here, playing ‘Mathletics’ and ‘Try this on your Piano’, as a band very much still in their infancy. Since then with the confidence to leave those singles off the album they have gone from strength to strength and whilst any new material is still some way off they have honed their live show to anarchic perfection. They kick things off with huge semi-improv jam ‘XXXX’ and blend effortlessly into ‘French Open’ and ‘Olympic Airways’ to warm the crowd up. The old hall took a battering throughout crowd pleasers ‘Cassius’, ‘Balloons’ and ‘Hummer’ and then as the music tipped the scales in a grungier direction the lead singer decided to behave accordingly. There is no need to cover yet again the details of Yannis’ tantrum only to say that the band did a perfect job of stretching out ‘Electric Bloom’ without him.

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