Photo: Justine Trickett
In a weird coincidence, the night before Warpaint take to Koko's stage Swim Deep also graced the Camden venue. What does the band from L.A have in common with the band from Birmingham? A bassist - kind of. In Swim Deep's 'King City' Austin Williams drawls, 'I wanna pretend that Jenny Lee Lindberg is my girlfriend'.
Tonight, everyone in the room wants Warpaint bassist Jenny Lee Lindberg to be their girlfriend, from the minute she takes to the stage and saunters around with her bass like they're one, ridiculously cool entity. In fact, can we just join the band? No? Then we're quite happy to watch them for as long as the night lets us.
Warpaint claimed their latest self-titled album was a concoction of their jamming and free-flowing on stage, and tonight it's crystal clear that this is where they're in their element.
The four girls drift effortlessly in and out of songs with lashings of reverb and moments of pure spontaneity. As is the case with 'Undertow' when just as the song should come to a close, the band in perfect sync and to the delight of the crowd elongate its ending, quickening the pace until it reaches a climax, and then without a moment's pause crash into new single 'Love Is To Die'.
The R&B influences of the band become strangely coherent when singer Emily Kokal goes from moments of near a cappella to freeing her microphone from its stand and strutting the front of the stage in an almost MC-style fashion with the help of flawless harmonies from her bandmates.
Tonight, Koko is bewitched by an ambience unique to Warpaint, and it's laudable that every single song from new album tracks to encore 'Elephants' from their debut EP is equally euphorically received. The very minimalist nature of Warpaint's songs means that live, there's nowhere for them to hide. Their true brilliance shines.
It's exactly this sense of exposure and purity that has the crowd completely mesmerised, hanging off every note Warpaint throws their way.
Warpaint played:
Intro
Keep It Healthy
Bees
Hi
Composure
Feeling Alright
Biggy
No Way Out
Billie Holiday
Undertow
Love Is to Die
Drive
Disco//Very
Encore:
Elephants
Below: More awesome and exclusive photos of Warpaint live at Koko
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