Toy! Toy!
Hoxton Bar & Grill, Thursday 20th March 2008
Squeeze through to the back of the Hoxton Bar & Grill and you'll find
a curtain. Behind the curtain is an intimate but exciting music venue
which is filling up nicely on the Thursday before Easter as threepiece
Toy! Toy! prepare to entertain a demob happy crowd. This is the
biggest gig of their short career - in an hour or so a much more
established band will come on in the shape of Deptford's The Shortwave
Set. But if Toy! Toy! are nervous at the prospect they don't show it.
They're a band who have a lot more gumption to them live than their
initial recordings might suggest and they launch into a blistering
set, anchored by Synth Girl's shuddering keyboards, propelled by
Sticks Mahone's thunderous drumming and held together by Swallow's
commanding stage presence. Picking out wiry melodies on her guitar
(plugged in to an uncharacteristically weedy looking practice amp),
and spitting out wry lyrics about the social networking generation
(The Me Song) and infidelity (Fuck My Boyfriend - luckily boyfriend
Sticks Mahone is too busy behind his kit to pay attention to the
lyrics), Swallow is a frontperson who demands attention and could lead
Toy! Toy! to great things. Predictably, a chaotic set by The Shortwave
Set fails to steal their thunder.
By Tom Howard @ itunes
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Joined: 2008-03-26