Line Of Best Fit Five Day Forecast (Wed & Thu)

The Line Of Best Fit ‘Five Day Forecast’ takes place over five nights in January and has been a good way to catch bands who could be influential in the next 12 months. They take place at the Lexington when there’s not much to do and the evenings are a welcome diversion in what always feels like the longest month of the year. This year, I only managed to get to two evenings, the Wednesday and Thursday nights, both with interesting lineups.

Wednesday featured HotWax, The Itch and Borough Council. I was there to catch The Itch, formed out of the ashes of Regressive Left, a band I really liked.

Opening the evening were Borough Council. I have to admit I didn’t engage with them. For half their set, the vocals were non-existent in the mix. They were also playing on a dark smoke filled stage.

Playing a fairly sedate set of Krautrock inspired music. I didn’t feel they made best use of the template. Only one song really pushed the template to the point where they seemed to freewheel. Like pysch, good Krautrock has to have songs wander off and then return back to base. The song that did wander off was good. They just need to loosen up some of their other songs.

I was a big fan of the Regressive Left. I hadn’t realised they had split up until people started talking about their new band, The Itch. From the Itch’s website

“The Itch are a brand new Electronic post-punk band featuring members of Lazarus kane, Regressive Left, Opus Kink, and Yassassin.”

That’s an interesting mix. With no recorded music, I was eager to see if any of the things I liked about Regressive Left had made the transition.

They were easily my highlight from the two evenings. Much of the formula which made Regressive Left so good, were still there. Simon Tyrie’s vocals are still a strong focus of the sound. He has a really good voice that was always front-and-centre of their performance. Georgia Hardy’s shifting drum rhythms are still a part of the sound. I was really impressed by them. While I feel that post-punk might have run its course, it is good to see that the genre can still sound fresh.

I caught Hotwax playing the Horn. I could see why they were making waves in London. I wasn’t completely sold on them. I didn’t feel their sound was that fresh but done well. Tonight, I was left with the same feeling. Playing heavy blues rock, including some great guitar shredding. It feels like the stuff you hear in every local venue outside London. It’s done well. It’s energetic. They’re worth catching. I just don’t feel like they just are going to surprise me.

Opening Thursday was Luce Rushton who was the drummer in Deep Tan and now writing under her own name. It was pleasant, but unremarkable. But to be perfectly honest, I wasn’t switched on either. I recently purchased a new (second hand) camera and I’m testing its silent shooting capabilities under venue lighting. My now second camera, I know it’s limitations so I don’t need to review shots. The new one, I’m still checking shots for banding and wasn’t concentrating as I changed settings to deal with the poorly lit stage. That wasn’t fair on Luce and I will give her proper listen a listen on record.

I had seen Blue Bendy play the Horn. They didn’t do much for me that night, but there’s always a chance a band impresses on a second view. Tonight, they did more to hold my interested. However, they weren’t helped by the layout of the band. Singer hidden in darkness at the side of the stage and the guitarist sitting on a beer keg in the centre of the stage. It was all too static for me, only becoming interesting when the singer moved away from the mic stand into some light.

Nottingham’s Divorce have been making waves. Even the London music scene has noticed them and they’ve played venues like The Lexington before. Tonight’s sold out show was their biggest, but they will play bigger shows. I can see why people like them. They have two singers with vocals that work really well together and they mix genres into their indie sound that others aren’t using, one song even had a country tinge. I liked what I heard. Maybe I didn’t love what I heard – but I had to leave early to catch my train and left with three songs remaining. These evening are all about who to watch and Divorce did enough to peak my interest.