The Old Blue Last is a classic old pub in happening Shoreditch. There is a small upstairs band room providing an intimate venue. The stage is shoehorned into a corner with a solid PA.
Graceland
These girls are a four piece from London with a low-fi feel, but not slotting into the usual formula. Their tunes are diverse with spacey surf guitar breaking into fuzzy guitar riffs overlain by some sweet melodies. A solid bass line and strong but sparse and precise drummer brings it all together into a refreshing sound.
Brutus
Then there was a crowd shift change, moving from female to male dominated. The 3 piece Norwegian Brutus exploded into a speed metal frenzy, with the bass player having a bigger effects rack than the guitar, including a wah pedal and a massive bass amp rig to match. Frenzied and powerful drumming accompanied the tremendous thumping of the bass enhanced by the classic spread legs rock power stance with the guitar layering sonic harmonics over everything. Vocals belted from a tiny power unit of a drummer, rivalling Bjork in her range and washing over the packed house.
The throbbing effects ridden Brutus bass and smashing drums were working constantly at the brown note, but it just didn’t quite get there. Maybe the brown pedal was kept in reserve tonight.
Searching for the Brown Note 