On a wet and windy day in Shoreditch standing on a roof exposed to the elements wouldn’t feature on many people’s list of priorities. Throw in a couple of bands, both of whom regularly sell out much larger shows, playing for free and the deal suddenly becomes a whole lot sweeter.
Stationed outside the newly launched Logitech UE store the stage was set for two of the leading ladies of the indie scene to duke it out and see whose voice and lovelorn lyrics tugged most at the audience’s heartstrings.
First up was Alice Costelloe, accompanied by a shivering Kacey Underwood, with Big Deal going back to their roots and playing sans bass and drums. Playing a set of songs comprised from their debut album ‘Lights Out’ the distance between the two of them seemed to expand and contract as the lyrics flitted between longing, lusting and rejection. Between songs Kacey took charge of interacting with the audience, the majority of his patter involving how cold his fingers were and how it seemed like a long way from his desert roots.
As Big Deal departed to enthusiastic applause snow started to tumble from the clouds, but it didn’t dampen the spirits of the swelling crowd. The majority of people were there to see Daughter, a band whose live performances have garnered a whole heap of praise over the last year. With the rooftop outside the Logitech UE shop now looking rather picturesque with its white coating the audience huddled together and greeted the band as they shuffled out and assembled their stripped back setup.
Singer Elena Tonra’s timid nature belies the power of her voice, her ethereal tones cutting through the cold and carrying across the rooftop. The recently released ‘Smother’ inspires the biggest reaction from the crowd as they sway to Tonra’s impassioned vocal and loudly applaud. As the all too brief set comes to a close the band are persuaded to add an extra track to their set by the expectant audience calling for an encore.
Daughter retire to the warm haven of the Logitech UE shop and guitarist Igor Haefeli expresses his gratitude to those who’d tuned out in support of the band. “It was amazing, it was really nice,” he says. He then went on to talk about the band’s pared down instrumentation. “It’s really cool, we don’t do that very often anymore. It used to be just Elena on acoustic and me on electric so it’s back to the roots. I got my multi-effect out which I never use anymore so that was good fun. When we soundchecked I was way colder and my hands were really stiff but as soon as people showed up their body warmth helped. It’s so nice to do this in this kind of atmosphere, it felt quite Christmassy.”
