It was only with the release of their excellent debut album two weeks earlier, that I realised how young they were. It is a tribute to the quality of their songwriting that I had imagined a band with much more maturity than these teenagers, barely out of school. These are talented young adults.

Paper Dress Vintage is one of those cool shops that really are just glorified second hand shops with good PR. It was no surprise to see Horsegirl taking the stage in vintage clothing. Not sure if this is how they normally dress, but with their age, they looked like extras from Stranger Things. But in all honesty. The Stranger Things vibe worked with their sound.

Sadly, sound was an issue. Paper Dress isn’t a venue I go to very often, so I don’t know where is a good place to stand. As always, I was down at the front, but not centre stage. (I don’t like blocking artists from the audience). However, where I was standing meant the speakers were actually slightly behind me. Usually this isn’t too much of an issue in a small venue. In this case the vocals were completely lost over the sound from the on-stage amps. What I was hearing I really enjoyed. I just wasn’t hearing the full picture. A bit disappointing, but my fault. What was clear though, these are very talented teenagers. Musically, they are excellent. Like their songwriting, they play with a maturity that belies their age. Really impressive. There’s big things to come from these girls

Set List

• Electrolocation 2
• Emma
• Ballroom Dance Scene
• Homage to Birdnoculars
• Option 8
• Anti-Glory
• Live and Ski
• Sea Life Sandwich Boy
• Beautiful Song
• Dirtbag Transformation (Still Dirty)
• Billy

The venue was the Old Queens Head. It’s a while since I’d been here. Previous gigs, there had always been seating which I found encouraged talking and unless you got there early, meant standing at the back otherwise you’d be blocking the view. I have to admit, it wasn’t a favourite venue. But with the tables removed, it was a reasonable space and but for a small number of idiots, the crowd, respectful. Support on both evenings was from the excellent H.Hawkline.

The second evening, Aldous was playing Paper Dress Vintage. A second hand store in Hackney. It’s one of those hipster ‘vintage’ stores. Selling second hand crap for ‘vintage’ prices. It’s the first time I’d been here. I wasn’t sure what to expect. Luckily, they had a dedicated cafe/venue space upstairs. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the quietest place. Although the crowd was less respectful than the first evening with a really noisy air conditioning unit, the gig was as wonderful as the previous evening.

As the gig finished early, there was time to catch Quilt at the Moth Club. A reasonable psych band from the US.