Festival Review: Soundhood East London
Across four East London venues, Soundhood brought together emerging bands from Spain and the UK for one last festival weekend before autumn set in.
As summer and the festival season come to an end once again, we must stand firm and hunker down as the days grow shorter, colder and wetter. But all is not lost. SON Estrella Galicia, the branch of Estrella responsible for small gigs in London and across Spain, has returned to the capital. After a trifecta of gigs at Bethnal Green’s Sebright Arms, it painted East London (Estrella) red, taking over four venues across two days for its micro festival, SoundHood East London. With artists from Spain and the UK, plus a seemingly endless supply of Estrella Galicia, it helped tide us over until we can start afresh next year.
Kicking off the festival was Jo From School, a London-based bedroom pop and indie rock artist who played an intimate acoustic set at Hackney Style Council, a hairdresser’s next to Paper Dress Vintage. The set featured some of her better-known songs, including ‘Julia Roberts’ and ‘Chicken’. Stripping back the production on her recordings gave her lyrics and guitar playing room to breathe. The set was short but sweet and, despite being the first show of the weekend, one of its most striking performances. The up-close nature of it all gave her a chance to get a little looser with her melodies and take a few moments to chat with the audience. She promised to get a buzz cut in the venue if anyone agreed to do it with her. She left with a full head of hair, as did everyone who entered with one.
After a swift relocation to Paper Dress Vintage and a couple of pints of Estrella Galicia, it was time for Madrid-based four-piece Toldos Verdes, who exploded onto the stage with their mullet-driven, riff-forward indie rock, immediately capturing the room’s attention. With simple, punchy basslines and drum beats alongside a vocal tone that sounds scarily similar to Will Toledo’s, the band breezed through their set without so much as a hiccup. By the twenty-minute mark, their sound had shifted into something closer to The Strokes, maintaining the fast, catchy alt-rock riffs while bringing more emotion into the vocals. Towards the end, they took on a sound combining classic punk and country. The group had an unmistakable charm, taking time between songs to talk to the crowd, whose energy hadn’t waned remotely. ‘You are on the one hand having fun?’ the bassist asked at the end of their set. The room exploded.
Toldos Verdes were followed by Northampton-based three-piece Thistle, whose mix of grunge and shoegaze influences created an astonishingly sludgy sound that made them a fitting follow-up. That concluded Friday night’s antics, and who knew what the next day would bring.
Saturday brought a new host of bands and venues, with the Sebright Arms and the Victoria Dalston housing the festival’s English and Spanish acts. London-based post-punk band The Orchestra For Now played an hour-long set at the Sebright Arms, unfortunately clashing with Brighton five-piece Goodbye at the Victoria. Goodbye immediately stood out on stage with their psychedelic-tinged post-rock, dreamy vocals, simple but punchy guitar riffs and clean, poppy bass tone. Throughout the set, the two guitarists passed an acoustic guitar between them, switching between rhythm and lead. One also had a synthesiser and drum machine, which they used to add beats and effects. Their singer’s soft, mellow voice contrasted well with the instrumentals, and she moved around the stage waifishly yet confidently. The final song was heavier and focused on bass and drums, with the guitars somewhat lost in the noise, but it was one of their strongest.
Following Goodbye were Madrid-based Error 97, a heavyish alt-rock four-piece who have clearly taken quite a lot of influence from classic British punk. Their vibe was juvenile, but lots of fun, with overdriven guitar and a genuinely infectious joie de vivre. Their sound was riff-led, with a J-rock-sounding vocal style and a hard-hitting, punky bass tone. The band took absolutely no time finding their groove and, within five minutes, launched into a genuinely staggering breakdown. The speed and aggression of their playing, set against the upbeat vocals, made for a delightful combination. They all played well, but the clear standouts were the drummer and lead guitarist, who dominated the band’s sound. They left no dead air, filling the room through the sheer energy of their playing.
Concluding the trifecta of live sets and headlining the festival were South London indie rock trio Honeyglaze. The band started strong and kept the momentum up throughout their hour-long performance, never losing the audience’s attention. The most immediate standout was Tim Curstis on bass, whose basslines consistently impressed in both composition and tone. The vocals were often staccato and curt, occasionally making use of spoken-word passages for emphasis alongside the equally crisp bass. Their guitar riffs were powerful and melodic, which served them well when they took on a more shoegazy sound twenty or so minutes into the performance. The lead and backing vocals harmonised seamlessly and, despite being a three-piece, their sound utterly filled the room. They finished on ‘Don’t’, the crowd loved it and the band walked off stage, concluding this year’s SoundHood East London and this year’s festival season. It will be a long, difficult wait for it all to start back up next year, but a send-off like that makes it a little easier.
Photography By: Alex Amoros