Yacht
Hoxton Bar & Kitchen, London
26/07/2011

A balmy summer evening in Hoxton Square and the trendsters are out in force. A queue forms early to nab the last of the last tickets for tonight’s gig and snakes its way around the bustling bar. No one wants to miss headliners YACHT tonight – they have a string of dates booked throughout Europe, but their UK performances are few and far between.

Opening for the Portland band are the aptly named Clout!, whose huge noise is almost too big for the confines of Hoxton’s back room. The experimental five-piece from Southend-on-Sea, make an energy-stuffed performance of their debut EP – including song ‘Maxwell O’ which first got them noticed at the end of last year. The willing audience makes up for its small size with big appreciation. A little late, the ladies and gents of the main event appear on stage with the charismatic Claire L looking androgynous in an oversized T-shirt – which she sheds for fourth song ‘I Walked Alone’, from their recently released LP, ‘Shangri-la’. The set tonight showcases the concept album almost in its entirety. Their fifth full-length release is a hectic, hedonistic mix of starry-synths and poppy vocals – but doesn’t seem to have quite yet permeated the headphones of most of tonight’s fans.

Half way through comes ‘The Afterlife’, from 2009 cracker ‘See Mystery Lights’, and it’s met with excited recognition – swiftly followed by an equally arousing cover of The B-52s’, ‘Mesopotamia’. Wisely, YACHT finish up with arguably their best-known hit, ‘Psychic City (Voodoo City)’, which brings about a sort of sing-a-long followed by rapturous applause. A good but not great cover of Judas Priest, ‘Breaking The Law’, is delivered as an encore, leaving a room of loyal but slightly lost fans trying to decipher whether they like the latest sound out of YACHTopia.

Roxanne Fisher