Thursday night in Dalston and I head down to a residential side road to recently reopened Shacklewell Arms; a reputedly once sketchy local boozer-turned into a bustling pub/music venue. It’s one of those nights and one of those places where everyone here could be (and in most cases, probably are) in bands. Despite the aching air of cool that surrounds a large swathe of the crowd, it’s a friendly atmosphere and the Shacklewell largely feels like the old London pub of yore with the addition of lots of band posters and an impressive and interesting booking policy. I can feel we’re in for a fun night, and I’m not wrong.
Norwegian three piece Ungdomskulen (meaning ‘Youth School’) are a band who do not take themselves too seriously. They are bizarrely-dressed (The bass player is sporting what is best described as a sort of disco shell-suit top and has an enormous ‘tache) and entertaining from the word go. Firing off bite-sized chunks of post-punk/ punk funk tighter than a hipster’s jeans, my friend Dan sums up their sound thusly “a mix of Thin Lizzy, Fugazi and Can”. That’s a pretty on-the-money description of this set. Their sound marries the old rock theatrics of ‘Lizzy with liberal applications of wood blocks/cowbell and bass hooks which command all feet to move. It’s a fairly joyous sight, especially in a part of London where ears are discerning and criticisms can be fierce – most people are dancing.
The band have adopted a novel approach to their latest release ‘Gimme Ten’ drip feeding their album by giving one free download a week. Each track comes in at either just under, or a little over a minute so they manage to cram a 14 song set in to a relatively short playing time.
Absurdity isn’t confined to their wardrobes, it’s in evidence in the song titles and lyrical content too. ‘Silver or Bronze’ is minimalist post-punk with throwaway comments about ‘your mum’ ‘Take your silver spoon and go stick it to your mum’ they shout while the slower-paced ‘Walking the dog’ offers some misguided insights into the art of seduction ‘You can take off all your clothes/dance the happy dance/but I am walking the dog’. ‘Elle’ is so groovy I wish it could be looped six times for maximum enjoyment. One minute is not long enough, I need more, dammit. The frenetic ‘I dunno’ which comes in at a whopping 2minutes 57 seconds is the standout track for me. Howling 70s guitar work and ludicrously fast drumming blast us full on in our faces. It’s a good feeling. School’s almost out for summer. I recommend putting them on your listening list.
Next up and headlining tonight are Aussie ex-pat duo Civil Civic. They deliver a short but impressive set of frenzied guitar-meets-synth-meets-electronic music. To quote one of the dudes in the band from Gilmore Girls ‘that’s a whole lot of meeting’. They are comprised of guitarist Aaron Cupples and bassist Ben Green with beats courtesy of ‘The Box’ – a large square purveyor of disco lights and loud sounds, on top of which rests two synths which interplay between the ‘call and response’ dynamic of the bass and guitar (thanks again to heads-up and background on this band, Dan). Their sound is like the best bits of post-rock/math rock and prog but without the long, drawn-out tease (Much as we at KV do so indulge that tease). Their tracks are multi layered, with plenty of distortion, big riffs and fx pedals but the pay off comes around quickly in the form of crunching beats and even a touch of kazoo is thrown into the mix during the former single, ‘Run Overdrive’
Bathed under blue hues of flashing lights, the crowd has gathered in close and the results are fairly hypnotic. I look forward to more Civil Civic duties soon.