Last night I decided to leave the comfort of my house and venture to Nation of Shopkeepers for a Vice Issue Party Launch. It was my first magazine launch and I have to be honest, I was pretty scared. I always pictured these parties as crazy and sweaty. If you ever picked up a copy of Vice you probably know what I mean – naked people dancing around or doing human pyramids, stoned people licking vomit on the floor and all those hip “party hard” clichés. However, what I found instead was a normal and quiet Nation Wednesday evening where people were actually quietly eating their chips instead of puking around everywhere.
But anyway, what really attracted me the most was the bill for the night: Best Friends + The Louche FC + Weird Dreams.
I arrived at the venue quite early and while chatting away the minutes left until the first band was on drinking lager, I couldn’t help but noticing the crowd that was slowly starting to fill the empty Shopkeepers. Woolly hats, hoods and more people carrying around skateboards. Yes, that’s correct, the premises were right for what I always imagined a Vice night was meant to be, but instead what happily surprised me were the bands.
The first band to appear on stage was Best Friends – I’m talking about the Best Friends band from Sheffield, not the country/gospel quartet from Oklahoma that comes up when you type their name on Google. Best Friends make a catchy dancy indie pop of that kind that makes you check the date on the calendar to see if it’s actually still 2005. Unfortunately, they were a bit penalised by the bad acoustics. Basically, the sound was so bad that at points I could tell there was a bassist and a guitarist only because I could actually see them playing on stage. But definitely a band to catch again without all the technical difficulties.
Second on were The Louche FC. This was the moment when my body came back to life even after a long day of pretending of being a clever student at Uni. During their set, noisy and heart felt shoe-gazing melodies invaded Nation of Shopkeepers and they literally carried the small crowd away (who in fact requested 2 more songs at the end of their set). The singer – who reminded me in a way of Karen O – playing loud and fuzzy guitar, is just one of those girls that make you think ‘I want to learn to play guitar. No wait, I actually * need * to learn to play guitar’. If you’re an early Jesus and Mary Chain nostalgic (as I most definitely am) and enjoy the first Pains of Being Pure at Heart LP this is definitely a band you want to check out.
To conclude the night finally my most awaited act, Weird Dreams. They brought to Nation psychedelic-pop surfing harmonies from London. They make you think of the more experimental Beach Boys at first, but however mixed up with a strong sense of Lynch-isms in their lyrics that leave you happily forlorn the more you are overwhelmed by the intensity of their sound. It doesn’t surprise me that they describe themselves as ‘Blue Velveteens’ on their Lasf.fm profile. The set was long and efficient and clearly left the crowd wanting more. Apparently, as the singer claimed, Leeds is one of their favourite places to play gigs, and I honestly hope they will pay another visit soon.
Nicole Paciello
Band profile: The Louche FC
I’ve seen The Louche FC a few times now – twice in their home city of Manchester and supporting the Vivian Girls at the Brudenell in 2011 – but it had been all quiet on the north-western front since the release of the ‘Romantic’ single in November. So imagine, if you will, my delight at discovering they were to return to Leeds to play at one of the (now monthly) Vice nights at Nation of Shopkeepers. Now I like gigs that I don’t have to pay get into – especially when the line-up includes some shit-hot bands – but this magazine perplexes me somewhat… so there is a party to launch every issue? Is that really necessary? Can you imagine if the same thing happened each time Reader’s Digest came out: party down the dentist waiting room guys, yeah!! Besides the fact that these events are held on Wednesday nights with the headlining band not starting til last bus time thus preventing a decent turn out, I’m not sure how much more ‘launching’ the publication needs. It’s not like it’s a cruise liner or anything, though *some* may welcome a fate worse than Costa Concordia on this tedious hipster wank-mag…
Anyway, I digress as usual. Thanks to the unbridled generosity of Vice, I was able to catch up with The Louche FC to ask a few question about what they’d been up to since we last met, their plans for the 2012, and discuss their diet (that wasn’t intentional by the way):
So Kyoko (front woman) and Adam (drummer), what’ve you been up to? Kyoko: On Monday we were headlining at the launch of a new night at the legendary Manchester music venue, The Band on the Wall. The club is mainly used for jazz and blues nights so this is a chance to showcase all kinds of new and emerging local talents. In November last year we played at Oporto on Call Lane for the We Know Eno guys – I really like that venue and the Mexican restaurant next door (Neon Cactus) – they do good vegetarian food! So you’re not starving musicians suffering for your art then? Not this week, I went shopping at Aldi for a budget ready meal of spaghetti – you’ve got to eat.
How did you get involved in the Vice night at Shopkeepers? Adam: It was through Loomer, a Manchester based booking agency that also represents our fellow label mates Ghost Outfit. Vice contacted them and we were asked to play. The Nation of Shopkeepers listings have you down as playing on the 1st February as well?! Urm, that must be a misprint – don’t turn up, you will only be disappointed!
So what’s the plan for this year then? Kyoko: We’ve got a secret gig coming up at the start of February which should be fun. In the past year we’ve played Leeds, Liverpool and London and I’d really like to do some gigs up in Glasgow. Adam’s been working on the twitter and Facebook page so check them out. Oh and a new EP out sometime soon on Sways Records!
And then unfortunately for me, the band had to rush to finish their special Nation boutique burger and fries whilst I looked on hungrily. EOM.
Nicola Chapman