This Is Not TV

Levis’ 5 Night Revue, Metronomy + Tubelord, Macbeth – Friday 26th September 2008

Tubelord kicked off proceedings on the final night of Levis’ five night stay at the Macbeth and did so loudly. Buoyed by plenty of local support the rock band that should have broke up and gone to university actually put on a set more than worth half an hour of anybody’s time. Post grunge it definitely isn’t and a 19 year old Thom York may welll be ashamed of that haircut but once you get passed these small details and let go 1991 doesn’t sound that bad. Not when you have had to listen to Snow Patrol on your office radio all day. As with every other night this week Levis’ had collected up two improbable team mates in a successful bid to put on an original show and open up peoples ears to new music. Their Ones to Watch brand has built up a lot of momentum in the past year, especially with the recent success of acts graduating from this stage 12 months ago and I can’t imagine that many would have arrived as fans of both bands, but the likelihood is that they would have definitely left that way.

Tonight’s headliners Metronomy have already had one album out, but singer Joseph Mount has since strengthened his line up by making former back ups the Food Groups full time members of his. This has turned out to be a masterstroke with Metronomy moving from that awkward position of timid critical acclaim to full on men of the moment. Their party of a live set still finds room for efforts from the first album, but with a new lease of life they could never go under appreciated. The funky bass riffs, light shows and dance moves have the crowd bopping away like the bar staff in some sort of funky house club. Crowd favourites such as the superb ‘My Heart Rate Rapid’, Radio Ladio’ and ‘Heartbreaker’ can’t fail to impress and by the time comes for the lights to be raised there is sweat dripping off the walls, surely everyone went home happy.

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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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