Getintothis’ own Ini Kamoze Andy Kelly hotsteps around Sound City day two, getting green-fingered in the Kazimier Gardens, saying his prayers at the Anglican Cathedral and watching some front-row fisty-cuffs at Leaf.
A strong wind is whipping up a dust storm in the Kazimier Gardens but it is nothing compared to the joyous pop storm being whipped up by Concrete Knives.
This French five-piece start with a small crowd but it has multiplied five or six-fold by the time this wonderful set is over.
With gorgeous simplicity and a rather effortless cool – particularly from front-woman Morgane Colas – they deliver songs which bounce, stomp and tickle their way inside your head and through the soles of your feet.
At first everyone just watches as smiles slowly spread across their faces, delighted by the glorious vignettes emanating from the stage, not least with Wallpaper and occasionally with a few tribal beats thrown in as on Africanize.
But it’s when they throw in a quite brilliant Gallic cover of Here Comes the Hotstepper that the Gardens burst into life and the whole crowd are up and dancing.
The closing track’s lament of ‘I’ve got a broken heart….everything has gone‘ is backed by the band letting rip and at its close, the guitarist is slumped against the rear of the stage, seemingly exhausted by the intensity of it all, though perhaps also stunned by the dreadfulness of his ‘Boxing Day-style’ jumper.
Toy lit up the Cathedral
Earlier Toy proved a perfect precursor to Walkmen at the Cathedral with a set of swirling repetitive loops and kraut-rocky rhythms which were well matched to the atmospheric surrounds.
My night ended with Temples, a band who look fantastic with a classic rock aesthetic and sound (frontman James Bagshaw has got a real Marc Bolan look going on and there are impressive cheekbones everywhere you look on stage) but even during the psychedelic-tinged Prism they promised more than they delivered for me and I found my mind wondering even before the high dickhead-quotient in a packed Leaf spilled over into a brief but disturbing fight on the front row, though the band dealt with it well.
Temples unleashed classic rock as bedlam ensured down the front at Leaf
Photography by Getintothis’ Matt Owen and Matt Thomas
