More about: Horsey

Imagine this: it’s the first gig you’re going to, post-rona. You’re asked to download an app to order drinks and to don your mask when travelling out of your seat. You’re shown to your seat at Hackney’s MOTH Club, a tiny venue with its ceilings crusted in glitz and the stage draped in loud, lametta tinsel. Just as you’re wondering about all these new precautions and rules that face you, four men in gold, glittery blazers burst through the door and run to the stage, whooping as they set up. 

Such is the stage presence of Horsey, headed by Theo McCabe and Jacob Read. For a small gig where the audience is bound to their chairs, Horsey really try to uplift the tamped energy of the room with their own raucous chaos. They’ll run through the crowd screaming through their loudspeakers, and towards the end, guitarist Jacob Read (a.k.a. Jerkcurb) will be shaking his whole body trying to strum the chords.

Horsey's music is equally as frenetic, switching every minute or so between a carousel of randomly selected jazz and rock genres. It's also impressive how they maintain energy during quiet bits: drummer George Bass stood up and asks the audience to whoop with him as Read cleans up some water from the stage floor. In fact, Horsey’s energy dwarfs the stage: you can only imagine the kind of show they’d put on with more space and more funding. 

That’s what’s compelling to watch about Horsey: they’re not afraid to interact with each other, or even to laugh about it. McCabe and Read swap vocal lines like quickfire dialogue, occasionally duetting together. Bass will shout the lyrics with them, even though the mic isn’t set up for him. The bassist, Jack Marshall (who you might know as King Krule’s brother) is probably the quietest out of the band, standing to the side doing some fantastic work handling his basslines. Nevertheless, Read at one point gets too close for comfort during ‘Park Outside Your Mother’s House’, squishing Marshall against the wall. All he could do was flash an apologetic smile to the audience, causing a little giggle. Each band member is equally as excited to play their music, and their showmanship is bolstered by their ability to naturally horse around with each other on stage.

Horsey have an effortless charisma and charm about them; they’ll ask questions like ‘have we been to many gigs in lockdown?’ and garner some genuine laughs from the audience. Watching other Horsey fans rock and bob in their own booths, tonight’s gig feels like a success in giving you a surprisingly nice reminder of life before COVID (even if it’s soundtracked by tales of being shat on by a French man).  

More about: Horsey