It’s fair to say that electropop keyboard led music is not my go to music style with my heart sat firmly in guitar based music but I do make rare exceptions and I was happy to do this for this band. Looking back in my gig diaries it’s been eleven years since I’d been to Heaven and coincidentally it was for another electropop band in Django Django.
After some apparent technical difficulties this three piece stride purposefully onto the stage and we are off. It’s a sparse setup with keyboard on one side, bass on the other but this allows lead singer and guitarist Ian Richard Devaney the rest of the stage to prowl around like a hyperactive David Byrne on speed. He’s an enigmatic presence and you can’t keep your eyes off of him. The sound was spot on but I guess some of that is the nature of the beast with electronic music but it doesn’t drown out Devaney’s vocal which are clear as a bell even though his voice is reminiscent of Aha’s Morten Harket which is a little distracting.
They deliver the perfect set to introduce the audience to their new album ‘Strange Disciple’ only released a few days before by essentially alternating a new song with an oldie throughout the night. But it was seamless shift and some of these new songs will no doubt soon be permanent additions to the set.
What struck me in their live experience was the songs all had an added energy that I guess you would expect in the flesh but this was certainly more pronounced as the recorded output sometimes suffers from feeling a little one paced and plodding. No such problem tonight and the time flew with no lulls and the audience were thoroughly engaged throughout. Whats always nice to see is that the band were genuinely enjoying themselves and performing at probably their biggest London show in this iconic venue.
Highlights include ‘Automobile’ and ‘Across that fine line’ on a night of a consistently strong set. So a great evening of electropop and maybe I won’t leave it eleven years until my next foray into the genre.
Keep on electropop rockin’ y’all