There was quite a buzz about this evening’s gig. After all, we had Brooklyn-based art rockers LEVY, who were effortlessly stylish and sounding fabulous, and of course the ever dependable ASH, who blew the roof off whilst throwing in some Tantric bass guitar poses, but more of that later...
Levy are touring to promote their new album “Glorious”, which if their performance was anything to go by, does exactly what is says on the tin. Perhaps it wasn’t so surprising that Levy supported Ash this evening; Tim Wheeler has been singing their praises and by all accounts is quite the fan.
James Levy, the brainchild behind the band, sang his way joyously throughout the set, while the band’s sound bellowed and expanded to fill the venue, the epic nature of their songs fitting in perfectly with the dilapidated beauty of Kokos. We liked. We liked very much.
There was some serious hip wiggling going on throughout the set. Their delicious blend of cherry-pop with the right amount of melancholy and bittersweet lyrics made for a mix that was nice ‘n’ edgy. It was great to see them supporting Ash, but it’ll be even better to see these guys headlining next time round.
And so, on to Ash. Ah, good old dependable, solid Ash. Never really doing anything groundbreaking or surprising, they just exist somewhere in the Middle of the Indie Road.
We were half expecting them to be slightly controversial by sparking up a cigarette on stage (Ash? Get it?). But no. Anyway, as solid and dependable as they are, when they played their classics (and there are many of them), the joy came flooding back and before we knew it, we were bouncing around like a kid on a space-hopper.
Theirs was an interesting set, with their new material sitting next to their older classics. On the one hand you could say it showed how their music, like a fine wine or good cheese, has aged and matured into something more grown-up and complex.
On the other hand, it could be argued that they have spent their long, long careers riding on the strength of their earlier material (“Girl From Mars”/”Kung Fu”/ “Oh Yeah”, etc), and haven’t really managed to cut the mustard for a while, prompting them to churn out a new album that (live, at least) sounds a cross between Snow Patrol and Tori Amos, minus the menstrual cramps.
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But it is hard to be so cynical when you’ve had too much flat lager, and you’ve been jumping up and down to songs that you were massively into as a teenager.
Perhaps it was inevitable that Ash would end up writing power ballads, most bands do when they hit a certain age. Unless you are Iggy Pop. Anyway, this gig was hugely nostalgic, and highlighted how, over the years, Ash have written some cracking tunes. A lot of cracking tunes. More than you realise until they’re slapping you repeatedly in the face like a wet herring, screaming: “Listen to me! I’m better than you think!!!”
And so we ditched our muso cynicism and got right into the spirit of things. With most of the venue jumping around like lunatics - quite a feat for a London gig – it was hard not to.
Other highlights of the gig included the mysterious appearance of a couple of trees on stage (well, it took us a while to notice them, we were too busy dancing, in the loosest sense of the word), and some bizarre Tantric yoga poses courtesy of Mark Hamilton. It was like Narnia. Almost.
And so after an extended encore the gig drew to a close. As Whisperin and Hollerin’s very own Ben Broomfield so perfectly put it: “Tonight’s gig was so good I had to eat my own arm.” And it was readers, it truly was…
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