Brixton Windmill offspring Man/Woman/Chainsaw ventured north of the Thames for their biggest headline show to date. The art-rock ensemble packed out Camden’s Electric Ballroom in a triumphant end to the UK leg of their tour.
Despite the vastness of the city, the new wave of London’s indie music scene is surprisingly close-knit; fans formed a huddle in the venue’s entrance waiting for their friends to show up, while familiar faces spotted each other in the crowd and met with hugs.
Headlining the 1,500-capacity venue was a leap up from the sticky-floored pub rooms where they cut their teeth, but Man/Woman/Chainsaw rose to the challenge with ease. The six-piece strutted onto the stage to their signature, yet rather unexpected, walk-on song, 50 Cent’s ‘In Da Club’, and swiftly took their positions.
“It’s good to be home,” declared bassist and vocalist Vera Leppänen, with all the quiet confidence of someone playing in their living room. Their set commenced with ‘Only Girl’, showcasing an angelic harmony between Leppänen and keyboardist Emmie-Mae Avery. Violinist Clio Starwood immediately cemented herself as a dynamic performer, barely pausing for breath between throwing shapes throughout the entire set. Her gentle, moving violin solos were cleverly offset by Lola Cherry’s thrashing drums, without ever sounding clunky or disjointed.
The band’s constant switching of lead vocalists brought further variety to their catalogue. Tracks like ‘Goddamn, Lizard Man!’ and the groovy, keyboard-led ‘Flick of the Wrist’ revealed Billy Ward’s jaw-dropping talent as a baritone comparable to Leonard Cohen, while Leppänen got another moment to shine on the poignant ‘Still Angry’. The two interlocked perfectly in a duet for their earnest early single ‘Adam & Steve’.
They may be classically trained BRIT School alumni, but Man/Woman/Chainsaw’s performance maintained a steady balance between raw and polished. Guitarist Billy Doyle had a habit of dropping his plectrum, and Ward and Starwood appeared to be locked in an ongoing fencing match with their guitar and violin. At one point, they were four or five bars into a track before realising they’d skipped a song on their setlist. “We should’ve just gone with it, really,” remarked Leppänen. She dedicated ‘Lighter’ as a love letter to the crowd, a track not about smoking paraphernalia but instead an ode to the feeling of relief brought by love.
For the first time in their discography, Avery picked up lead vocals on the haunting, gothic ‘Get Up and Dance’. She further proved her skill as a frontwoman by taking on a cover of The Breeders’ ’90s classic ‘Cannonball’, which led aptly into the explosive closing number ‘Nosedive’.
From the opening bars, the crowd erupted into a frenzy, with fans jumping in time to the beat and belting out every lyric. Confetti and bubbles burst from the ceiling as members of Uncle Junior and Bathing Suits paraded onto the stage, making for a live reenactment of the track’s house-party-themed music video. An extended outro saw the young musicians dancing and hugging, a moment that was the perfect ending not only to the night, but to the whole UK tour.
Earlier in the evening, fellow Windmill regulars Uncle Junior had opened proceedings. The trio have been playing together since they were schoolboys, and display sharply contrasting vibes. Frontman Oli Noble takes on a theatrical art-school persona with heavily enunciated vocals, dramatic guitar breakdowns and stylised jerky movements à la Ian Curtis, while Patrick Lewis and Isaac West channel Britpop with cool bass riffs and clean-cut percussion. With their first single ‘Melt Me’ freshly released, they are finding their sound somewhere between the two, in the realm of modern post-punk.
With synthesisers and strobe lighting, Leeds-based dance-rock outfit Bathing Suits were far from a conventional four-piece band. Throw in the absence of a drummer and an elusive shirtless man posing his way around the stage like a Men’s Health model, and their performance crossed over into downright radical. Less a musician and more an accessory to the band, he resembled a chic version of the Happy Mondays’ Bez.
Bathing Suits temporarily transformed the ballroom into a rave, blowing the ears off the crowd with electronic basslines that rattled the walls. Lead singer and synthesist Freyja Blethins was magnetic on stage, holding the crowd’s attention even when Mr Men’s Health dived into a crowd surf in his pants.
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