After the great edition of Tolhuistuin London Calling, which served as a warming during the 2 previous days, finally reached the expected spring edition of the London Calling Festival, who was held in the 2 halls of Paradiso in Amsterdam, with Wolf Alice as major claim of the first day. Anyway, undoubtedly the main attraction of this festival is to discover new bands and to show off to your friends years later when one of them becomes stadium band..
Labour obligations prevented us from enjoying the shows from Happynees and The Proper Ornaments, but luckily for us we arrived in time to enjoy the show that San Fermin would offer. On a stage in which he emphasized the richness of sound provided by instruments such as violin, trumpet or baritone sax, American band defended his eponymous album to thrill the crowd, thanks to the amazing games of voices offered between Allen Tate, Charlene Kaye and Rebekah Durham. If the disc is already a blast, no doubt that live it elevates to a new dimension. With just enough time would try to go upstairs to the small hall in Paradiso, but in what would be a trend throughout the festival, its small capacity prevented entering it if you don’t abandoned the largest concert hall in good time ( almost half of the show .. ) So between elbows and little space, we listened to the Australians Kins, who showed us that their near calm rhythms closer to dream pop with a strong presence of bass lines and percussion win in small spaces, although their excess of distortion made the concert by moments a bit boring. Return to the big room would take us back to the southern hemisphere, as the also Australians The Trouble With Templeton were on stage. With a sound that perhaps is too closer to Bombay Bicycle Club and flair ambiguously moves between rock and pop, the band gave a fitting concert where only excess of falsetto from singer Thomas Calder reached by annoying at some points.
After a well deserved break for dinner,it was time to enjoy Teleman, emerged from the ashes of Pete and The Pirates and maintaining a continuous line with the previous project band. With a style that at times comes close to Django Django and other rock rhythms to the Beach Boys, concert was from lowest to highest and it seemed that when the band had more connection with the audience is just when the gig finish. On our return to the crowds and the war at small room afforded us the pleasant surprise of Hospitality, New York band whose sound was almost perfect, based on a completely absorbing synth lines and the sweet voice of her singer Amber Papini. With the only reference of its first album, it should be noted that the new songs from their recent album ” Trouble” had a great reception from the public in order to achieve the best concert on the small hall of all day. However, the award of concert of the night is reserved for English Wolf Alice, who confirmed their role of headliners of the day offering a concert full of strength, anger and distortions that made the audience go crazy. Waiting for an LP to confirm all the good that have shown their EP’s, this live was the best way to enjoy gapless sound that moves from the most obvious Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Sonic Youth to genius pieces of Throwing Muses.
Almost exhausted by the wasted energy, it was time to enjoy the most anticipated band on the small stage, the superband from Leeds Menace Beach, formed by members of different prestige bands that moved the indie in the British capital since the mid-90s. With some definite style that moves equally between madchester or shoegaze sound, the concert was fading gradually and only a few moments of overlapping voices among singers Liza Violet and Ryan Needham escaped show up too. To end the night, we had the other highlight of the day, the mysterious Jungle, which came with the label of one of the groups to follow in this 2014 after being included in the BBC Sound 2014 or in the list of 50 bands to listen this year by NME. His show under a dense fog that coveried the artists taking scenario almost into gloom, offered dance beats reminiscent of the American ’70s disco or basslines resembling the best of The Talking Heads. A sound almost perfect, reinforced by a wonderful chorus that delighted crowd avid of dance beats as the evening drew to finish.
London Calling @ Paradiso 9.05.2014 from Joao MB Costa on Vimeo.
