SUPPORT: Tiger Please
Both Francesqa and Tiger Please have earned themselves a healthy amount of exposure over the last twelve months – their legions of fans grow with every festival they play – and tonight?s bustling Barfly is a testament to how far the two bands have come in such a short time.
By the time Tiger Please break into their elaborate and atmospheric intro, the room is sweating and swaying in unison, and with Leon spending most of the set down amongst the crowd, tonight feels as intimate and personal as the lyrics in the songs he sings. While the likes of ?Spring And All Its Offering? and the heart-wrenching set closer ?Lights And Sounds? may not be the danciest numbers for this young crowd to get their teeth into, that doesn?t stop a hundred or so jaws head southwards over this performance. Tiger Please are a stunning live act ? individually virtuosos and collectively a stadium-shaking possibility. [4.5]
To make use of the age-old adage, if Tiger Please are the glass-half-empty sort of band, Francesqa are certainly glass-half-full. Where Tiger Please will melt your heart and gently caress your eardrums into submission, Francesqa will slap you in the face with a chorus and some distortion to show you what?s what. That?s amplified a thousand-fold tonight at their first ever headline London show, and frontman Ashley Wilkie certainly proves to be a comfortable and vivacious master of ceremonies.
?Ghosts? and ?Hopeful? sound thunderous, Wilkie?s voice never faltering and the accompanying riffs packing just the necessary amount of punch to keep this crowd going in this ever-sweltering venue. By the end of it all the room has been entirely sapped of it?s energy, but all in attendance head home safe in the knowledge they?ve just witnessed two of the UK?s most promising bands play what could be career-defining sets. [4.5]