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The cool kids are out in force tonight, desperate to get a piece of the free Vice Party action. They’re queuing down the street… round the corner… up the lane… under the bridge… past the tree… in the pit… up the stairs… Jesus, Vice Magazine, how many people did you think were going to fit in to 93 Feet East? Or is it a cynical, "it’ll look better if 3000 people turned up and all the critics are raving about how ‘it was sooo popular that they had to turn people away," kinda thing?
Maybe it’s the headliner’s fault. The cool kids just got a whiff of the hype dripping off everything the impossibly named Reggie Youngblood and his Black Kids have touched - and with their noses fully charged, they’re now after their ‘I was there’ badge, so they can wear it smugly when their kids (black, cool or otherwise) are asking them whether they saw Black Kids ‘in the beginning.’
Either way those kids that did get in are bouncing off the walls with anticipation and, despite Ipso Facto’s nonchalant plod and posture trying hard to break the mood - their awkward din seemingly designed for elsewhere – ain’t nothing gonna stop this crowd from dancing.
Friendly Fires restore the thump with favourites ‘On Board’, ‘Your Love’ and their single ‘Paris’ getting the whole room shaking like it’s1995. A girl dancing on the table falls backwards of a table, her friends drag her back up only for her to hurtle off forwards this time giggling all the way, such is the power of the Friendly Fires.
Reggie of Black Kids rocks onto the stage just after midnight to clamorous applause from the cool kids and leads his bandmates into smashing opener 'Hit The Heartbrakes', taken from their 'Wizard of Aahs' EP – their only ‘release’ to date. “Who said London doesn’t dance?” he cries, “fuck those motherfuckers!” His sister seems visibly shocked but stops herself from tutting, and follows his lead into the next song.
They aren’t perfect, they don’t live up to the hype (they’d have to be better than the Beatles to manage that) but they do play their good song well – The opening line of forthcoming single ‘I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You’ aches with ill formed teenage frustration and the songs which haven’t been released or leaked sound fresh and exciting.
It’s a good thing they aren’t perfect; where would they go? They haven’t even found their niche yet the music still swaggers between genres not content to stick anywhere, but perhaps that’s their charm – they refuse to settle in and be The Cure, they want to try everything. When they do settle though - and they will if they’re given the chance - on tonight’s evidence, the results will be pretty darn special.
