Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! LIVE @ Secret Living Room gig, London 17.5.14

Based only on the understanding that this London gig was to take place in somebody’s living room, with a name like ‘Clap Your Hands SayYeah’, I was expecting dance music, eighteen-year olds and bad strobe lighting.

As I entered into the world of the chic and the fashionable, the portrayal of CYHSY’s Alec Ounsworth was nothing less than – as much as I hate to use the word – trendy. As Ounsworth explained that this would be his last living room gig, the intimacy of the ‘small’ show become even more absorbing. Sat amongst atmospheric lights and the rustic charm of the wood and the minimalist simplicity, the audience of maybe 30 individuals was collectively lost in the painful cries of Alec’s voice and soulful guitar strumming, before returning to laughter and applause as small talk resumed.

The “success is forbidding” kind-of philosophy and emotive wails to complement really offered an insight into CYHSY’s intents; as the exclusive few listened intently and spoke freely without direction, the entire room quite literally positioned itself around Alec, tremolos and Dylan-esque nostalgia silencing all but that one frightfully powerful voice.

Joking with “this is… a song I haven’t played yet, yeah?”, casual badinage with the audience and the odd Q&A session, despite the setting, Ounsworth managed to keep the set entertaining and engaging, explaining the root of the name to have come from passing graffiti when needing a temporary title to perform under, innocently namedropping some very serious and important contacts met along his travels and, of course, citing the new record out on the 3rd June.

Noted down as “easily one of my best finds of the year”, whilst the London living room shows may now be a thing of the past, CYHSY is certainly a name worth remembering. With influences like Lou Reed and Van Morrison, with any luck you won’t need to.