I’m Not From London’s all-ages night Hellcats kicks off the year with an impressive line-up at The Bodega
Kicking things off are Super Furniture, one of the big hopes of the Nottingham scene. They have a bit of that late noughties superior indie sound of the Mystery Jets and Wild Beasts but there is also more of an angular sound there too. There's a really good variety in the songs but you can still tell they're all by the same band. Plus there is a cover of the theme tune from the children's cartoon Arthur, which I'm still pretty sure is the only TV programme about an aardvark. They close a great set with Bodyclock from their forthcoming EP, which features the cheery lines, “two slice toaster, put the kettle on. No-one will remember you when you’re gone."
Next up, it’s Anoa, a four-piece from Leicester but let’s not hold that against them. However, they do have a shoeless bassist and that definitely can be held against anyone as can having more than one guitar solo in the opening song. For their second track, the frontman is spitting lyrics like the angry love-child of post-Pistols Johnny Rotten and Mark E Smith but after that they settle down into more of an American post-punk sound, that kind of hard rock that evolved into hair metal. The between song drunken banter soon wears thin, even the band cut some of it off, and I say this as someone who hates it when bands don’t interact with the audience. Along with a few technical issues, it unfortunately puts them just the wrong side of the exciting/shambolic line.
Headlining, all the way from Hull, are Lumer, opening with all 80s electronics, the approximate point where The Cure dovetail with Joy Division. However, with the heavily reverbed vocals, the band that they most remind me of are The Horrors and there are a couple of songs here that wouldn't have sounded out of place on their recent album V. The highlight of an excellent set is probably the latest single Homicide but I'm still not quite sure why 3/4s of the band have their shirts off by the end of the gig.
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