Not since Jack and Meg White’s heyday has the one drummer/one frontman set up been so popular, with Royal Blood bagging awards and festival slots left, right and centre, while The Black Stripes cancel their own dates (due to drummer Patrick Carney’s arm injury). Step forward The Garden, then, who take the raucous rock road their contemporaries have laid down for them, scraping their feet and scuffing it as they walk it.
Rather than sticking with the three-minute radio friendly numbers those former bands have been seemingly happy to create, The Garden’s compositions barely reach 2.00, giving a clear indication that there’s a little more punk/spunk to the duo. But the clash in this instance is the moment where drummer Fletcher clears his kit to join twin brother Wyatt for a leftfield breakdown, showcasing more in common with Underworld than “bands” of the same time. According to the Californian duo, their sound is not dance, nor punk, rock or anything other than “Vada Vada” – “an idea that represents pure creative expressions, that disregards all previously made genres and ideals”. It works though, a sort of Dada for today, making all previous likenesses irrelevant. And if this genre-less bass player/frontman and drummer can be vada vada, who’s to say that Macca and Ringo can’t be The Beatles again?
Warpaint’s set is the dream one would imagine, with a stage set out like the unseen side of a carnival, and music to soundtrack the sort of trippy dream you enjoy but aren’t quite sure why. Combining the open space of The XX and the entrapment of Lykke Li, the four-piece blend war cries and sparse instrumentation to create a sea of sound that washes over the almost sold out Eventim Apollo. While their are moments where it feels like this is the band’s own party, the bond between them adds a strong confidence to their presence, whether in bassist Jenny Lee Lindberg’s personal dance groove or co-vocalist Theresa Wayman’s trip to the front of the audience (resulting in a literal trip when returning to the stage, or a “Madonna” as it could now be known.)
Their two LPs provide music for dark rooms, huge cushions and incense, but in a live setting their songs are giving a little more life, becoming anthemic numbers that, in parts, blend the beats of classic Blondie, the chimes of early U2 and something a little more avante-garde. From the looming opening of early tracks ‘Warpaint’ and the sparce ‘Undertow’ to the brooding ‘Love Is To Die’ and drips of electronics from new single ‘No Way Out’, each echoed vocal becomes more impressive as their night continues, particularly when all four join in for ‘No Way Out”s other A-Side, ‘I’ll Start Believing’.
“This is a big night for us,” Theresa tells the crowd, “The Queen of England is here tonight!” And although it’s unlikely that Liz has snuck in the back, we are in the presence of music royalty. Perhaps not second in line to the thrown, but a dark horse of a contender who you’d imagine can kill off their competition with a blend of seduction, sisterhood, angst and class – or in short, their stunning set tonight.
Dan Bull
@danbull7609
Dan Bull
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