| Lions At Your Door | ||||||||
| Candy’s Apartment 27th July After hanging out in Mansions with James, my perfectionist photographer and his precious backpack sized booty bag of lenses, the casual five piece band that is Lions At Your Door slowly grouped around us. Some had grabbed a quick bite while others chatted about their day and I was pleasantly surprised at how relaxed they all were (explained to me later on when they hit the stage well prepared for tonight’s gig). After getting some nice shots in a grungy avenue of light well suited to LAYD’S impeccably indie fashion sense they headed off for a sound check and James and I checked out the other bands in the back room of the venue. Candy’s Apartment is well known for providing fresh, young, talented bands with a flair for looking good and having a great time and tonight was no exception with the lead guitarist from ‘We Stole The Organ’ rocking to a fantastic drummer in the back room. Then, just as a toilet break was becoming a necessity, Lions At Your Door took stage to what was unfortunately quite a small crowd. |
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Their first track ‘Sad Face’ had a lovely old rock sound with drumbeat and guitar and Dave, the keyboardist, opened the song with a strong, accented and surprisingly clear voice accompanied by Cookie’s vocal harmony as she bopped around the stage singing to both the crowd and the band. This was really nice to watch and the band communicated well with each other. Cookie’s voice had a slight jazzy rumble to it on her longer notes, which contrasted nicely with Dave’s vocals and the pair shared very dramatic facial expressions in what I would describe as an aching for what they were singing about. Coming into the third track they let go a little more with increasing musical and physical movement from the guitarist Dirk and Mike on bass. Dirk lead the intro with a detailed melody built up to an ear-drum-blowing chorus and as Mike started bopping across stage to the beat of Kirbs drumming, flicking her head to every second beat, the band built an exciting and visually compelling intensity to their performance. I have to admit, I didn’t look to see what the rest of the crowd was doing because I was bopping along with Cookie and quite transfixed by this stage presence. I found the tracks fresh and heartfelt and would compare them in part to The Rapture, Yeah Yeah Yeah but with an edge of originality that sets them apart. I felt their slow tempo track predisposed to inordinate emotions between the singers but at the same time it showed off their extensive vocal ranges. Their final calling song LAYD really summed up their unique mixture of genres showcasing a little indie, rock, electro, jazz and even slightly operatic. Both singers took lead while Dirk, Mike and Kirbs formed a central triangle at the back of the stage, playing into each other to create a wild and passionate finale. A fresh stronger rock sound than most bands out today, with a drummer who skulls her beer between songs to start on a new one and a singer who’s microphone chord gets attached to the lead guitar, these prowling lions are definitely ones to watch out for.
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