The Xx @ Audio

So the ugliest band that have ever lived (Magic Numbers aside..) came to our fair shores last week to play a sold out gig at Audio, put on by our dear friends at Lout Promotions. It sold out so easily that another gig in March is already booked in at the Komedia and if you missed this show, i recommend getting a ticket.

Support came in the form of brighton band Esben and The Witch. I was quite looking forward to seeing them as id heard nothing but good stuff about their goffik reverb shenanigans and although i wasnt disappointed as such, it wasnt quite as good as id thought it might be. The songs all seemed quite shambolic and unfinished, and 2 minute moments of brilliance would be followed by 7 minutes of pissing about with FX pedals and banging a floor tom over and over. Basically it was quite pretentious but at the same time, they were pretty mesmerising and there is definitely some potential there. The birds quite fit aswell...

The Xx album, simply titled "xx", is quite possibly my favourite record of the year so far so i was really looking forward to this gig and they didnt let me down. The Xx have had an extremely quick rise to fame since their album was released by Young Turks in late August and have since toured with The Big Pink and Florence WENCH to name a few. They also went to the same school as Hot Chip, Fourtet and Burial which is kinda quite cool i guess....

They came on to 'Intro' which was to be expected and continued to play the album song by song which definitely seemed to work in this case. It was basically a perfect rendition of the album without any surprises or new bits and if im honest, this was exactly what i was hoping for as i love the album so much. If you havent heard it yet its full of insular, glacial pop tunes which are hauntingly brilliant and weirdly uplifting at the same time, id even go as far as to say its the 'Dummy' of the Noughties... Goosebump moments were "Crystalised", new single "Islands", the Chris Isaac - Wicked Game-esque "Infinity' and the amazing cover of 'Teardrops' by Womack and Womack so all in all pretty much spot on. Im looking forward to March already...

The Xx - Islands - Live on Jools Holland