By When it comes to music, live performances are arguably one the greatest ways to listen to music. Tours, Festivals, Busking, whatever the weather you can always guarantee that the music fans will pull through and support new emerging talent. Over the past 12 months we’ve been lucky enough to attend some of the summer-weekend festivals, the inner-city gems and even catch bands up and down the country at some of the best venues that the UK has to offer.
Asylums took to the stage this year at Flying Vinyls exclusive festival. And wow! Was it a set to remember?
Venue
I’ve never been to Hackney before. I certainly hadn’t ever been to that part of London either. I was of course greeted by a shady looking bloke in a leather jacket asking for a couple of quid as soon as I left the station, but nevertheless, I arrived at the now closed venue Shapes to walk into a smoked filled dystopia with an array of harsh neon pink and blue lighting and bar, serving my favourite beer. Bonus points or what? The outside smoking area had some sort of vegan expensive grilled cheese toastie stand which looked half decent and the space was very confined for the amount of people that attended the gig, but otherwise, the venue itself with incredibly trendy and very easy to use.
Performance
Have you ever been caught off guard by a band before? Being the music snob I am, I listened to a ten second clip of an Asylums song and instantly made a decision that I wasn’t going to like what I heard. Oh boy was I wrong. I have never ever seen a band with such eccentric energy and random acts of violence towards the air around them. Arms and legs were flying, hair was flying, instruments were flying. It was a ridiculously energetic set which in turn made me lock eyes with the lead singer as he hung from the railing and almost collapsed into the crowd. Luckily his photographer grabbed him in time. He starred in my soul and with every strum and beat, I could feel my heart racing and beating even harder. It was like a pleasant panic attack. Don’t get me wrong, It wasn’t sexual. Just a crazy moment in time. Chemistry like that between a crowd and a band is so very sacred. I haven’t had an experience like that with a band since. Plus I got to meet the guys afterwards and they are all really nice blokes. Friends on Facebook and everything mate.
Crowd
I met up with a lot of people that were going to the gig. Most of them I work with which was pretty cool. The majority of the crowd were familiar faces. Ever heard of Indie Twitter? It exists. It’s a lot like the Three Masons but for hipsters. I don’t have a problem with indie twitter. Those guys are keeping the live music scene together. Problem is half the crowd turned up later and missed a lot of the follow up talent which was just as good as The Magic Gang and Black Honey.
