When The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart released their self-titled debut album last year, it was generally well received across the music world, even earning them a ‘best new music’ tag from the behemoth of indie itself, Pitchfork. And rightly so: their take on fuzzed out shoegaze combined with sugary sweet melodies was indeed enthralling. However, there has always been another dimension to this band that sets them apart from contemporaries like, say, Crystal Stilts: a youthful, romantic, almost naïve exuberance that exhales from every guitar chord and chorus, and that even comes across in their elaborate band name. So let’s see if this young bunch from Brooklyn can hold up live to what it seems to promise on record.
First on are Yuck though, who start playing to a room that is only gradually swelling with punters. In Daniel Blumberg and Max Bloom the band comprises two former members of the now defunct Cajun Dance Party. Unlike their first band, Yuck make music that owes a lot, hell, almost everything, to American bands like Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr. Yes, they are loud. Yes, the music is alright. Yes, the other members, a Japanese girl on bass and a drummer with a massive ‘fro, look quite cool, too. They tick all the right boxes, yet in doing so they somehow untick them all at the same time. Everything’s too safe and predictable, and already the band seems to have noticed this themselves, judging by their limp performance tonight.
By the time TPOBPAH enter the stage, Heaven is fully packed and the air electrified with anticipation. Starting off with Young Adult Friction, they have the audience immediately at their feet and continue to do so throughout the rest of the set. Contender, Come Saturday and This Love Is Fucking Right all follow in quick succession and even get the notoriously lethargic London audience moving. The middle of the set is surprisingly marked by a new song, The Heart In Your Heartbreak, which is a much noisier and altogether rockier affair than anything from their debut. Kip, Peggy and co. clearly have a good time on stage and seem to enjoy every minute of it. That’s the thing about this band; they all come across as so unpretentious, natural and… pure. They finish their joyous set after 45 minutes, returning for an encore of two more new songs. Afterwards, Kip mingled with the crowd, happy to talk to anyone around; judging by the constant grin on his face, it wasn’t only a great night for me.