LIVE!!! Shelf Lives, the Old Blue Last

SHELF LIVES

Old Blue Last, East London

09/01/2





I’m late and the band are on time. It still surprises me that I’m surprised at this, but I’m ever the optimist time-wise.


The Old Blue Last is seemingly more open yet somehow much more intimate than my last visit, although it has been some time since my late-20s and memory is a fragile friend. That familiar blend of honest boozer and hip venue remains though, and I slip in to the odd-shaped music space to see Shelf Lives wriggling to get the midweek crowd jiggling on this sharp Tuesday’s eve.


Eschewing the preconceptions of a two-piece, the band play cosmic fuzz-funk with the passion of 80s hardcore, the camp of 80s disco, and the edge of 90s rap. It’s a niche blend that also nods to digicore and industrial, but also weaves everything into (dare I say it) a pop-friendly mix that the discerning listener can’t help but admire. 


Prog-grunge drop-d riffs are slashed out at offbeat rhythms whilst boom-bap backing tracks leave the middle wide-open for a tirade of rhymes that juxtapose against the interloping honeyed-melodies which hide in plain sight. This rhythmic full-frontal shifts feet and nods heads, whilst the pair on-stage provide a visual reflection of the music, all kinetic energy and shifting shapes. The melodic side of the band is well-developed, burying earworms in the polyrhythms and teasing them out at just the right moment. 


Fighting technical difficulties (that go mostly un-noticed by the crowd) and a notoriously difficult midweek date, this soulful duo win over the room with an otherwise tight show that whips up a storm in the latter stages as dance-floor becomes stage and the venue becomes one brief, but intense, party. 


Shelf Lives wuz here, indeed.


bio.site/shelflives


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