It’d been a while since I’d seen Van Coke Kartel, Foto na Dans and Bateleur – all awesome live bands I always enjoy watching – who along with La.Vi made up the formidable line-up at The Assembly last Saturday. I had high expectations and wasn’t disappointed.
La.Vi were no better or worse than the last time I saw them – again, they’re pleasant enough but just never leave a huge impression on me.
They are however about to head to Malawi along with Bateleur & Holiday Murray to play at the Lake of Stars Festival which is pretty awesome and should not go uncongratulated.
I was sorry Bateleur‘s sometime violinist wasn’t there, but their set was still cool. Plus they had a new intro routine which involved most of them grabbing a drumstick or 2 and hitting the nearest drum/amp – a nice (and pretty dramatic) way of starting off.
I admit I’ve gone off Foto na Dans a little – I’m just not crazy about their new material and liked them better when they were angsty and emo. Still they’re generally loads of fun live and while this wasn’t my favourite performance of theirs it was still enjoyable.
One thing that really annoyed me though was the deafening volume of their set; the guitarist set up his amp and did a quick soundcheck while the DJ was playing – holy shitsticks. The sound just cut through everything and seemed impossibly louder than anything else that night had been. I’ve become something of an expert at punishing my ears, but rarely have they taken a beating as bad as that…
Van Coke Kartel really are one of the best live acts I’ve seen – they’re always super energetic and engaging and even managed to make me change my mind about their new single, Vir Almal, which I wasn’t overly impressed with initially (the video is just ridiculous too) but which was transformed into something quite exciting when they played it live.
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Van Coke Kartel on Facebook | Their website (download Vir Almal for free)
Foto na Dans | Bateleur | La.Vi
