The venue is noisy with people excitedly chattering. There’s a sense of anticipation in the air. The crowd is of mixed ages and everyone is here for the sold out 86 TV’s show tonight.
Imogen and the Knife
Imogen and the Knife are tonight’s support act. Shallow and soft sounding drum percussion leads us into Imogen and her band on stage, their silhouettes illuminated by green and yellow stage lights, there’s something quite other worldly about their presence.
Stunningly soft vocals from Imogen are evocative, the trumpet joins in and we’re mesmerized. Other instruments come in at paced timings, percussion, bass and saxophone are now added to the sounds, making this performance completely unique. It’s slow, delicate and moving.
Imogen adds in additional sounds to the music by playing the keyboard. She is extremely multi-talented. The performance is deep, emotional and extremely powerful.
The crowd are alert to the suspenseful sounds and the set is full of instrumental surprises. Soft hi hats on the drums illuminate vocals and lead into choruses. All instruments together sound powerful and beautiful, the crowd is swaying in the melodies.
Imogen softly hums as the instruments become softer and songs come to beautiful finishes.
Imogen announces a new EP they’ve released and they’re playing a few tracks from it tonight, all songs were received extremely well by the audience. They’re nostalgic and melodic and provoke familiar but individual feelings in us.
Crowd members are shushing each other and stop their chattering for her isolated vocals which are atmospherically emotional.
Reverberated bass now adds to the darkened sadness and vocals become more powerful and raw as time goes on.
The keyboard gradually leads us into hit hat rumbles and ticklish notes from the sax that are drawn out in all the right places to emphasize sounds and brings the melodies together.
The trumpet comes in on highlighted trills and awakens us with staccato notes alongside lyrics sung proclaiming love.
Integrating and progressing scales and sounds are heard throughout the performance alongside haunting vocals with intent gaze, the band look incredible under the now florescent purple lights.
At time the set becomes jazzy with the brass in full swing and the band moving to the timing of the music looking and sounding perfectionistic.
Imogen tilts her head back and belts vocals which give us chills. The set went from the heart to sassy quickly and this was well received by the crowd. Imogen has a huge vocal range from tones to highs to lows to styles, from mellow to full throttle, each completely unique sounding. The set becomes grungy instrumentally at times but the vocals always remain clean.
The trumpet really emphasizes and surprises throughout. It becomes fast paced and gives a sense of urgency and a feeling that the crowds warmed up.
This set was a certain kind of magic felt by all. Subtly beautiful but somehow filled with attitude. Their stage presence is magnificent. A very compelling performance with intricate sounds throughout.
86TVs
86TVs take the stage and the set starts with extreme energy which emits into the crowd. Bouncy riffs with lots of chants begin and the crowds bopping along. The room is quickly filled with love and fun.
The band have hugely animated facial expressions. Intense high-pitched chords are elongated. Everything is extremely fast paced.
The guitars are played urgently and accompanied by lots of bass. Catchy choruses with last lines left for the crowd to sing, ensure our isolated vocals are sang back to the band. When they’re not playing instruments, their hands are outstretched to the audience. Felix calls for “vertical movement” from the crowd and all hands in the room are now up in the air. Vibrations can be felt from our clapping in unison. When the band and crowd chant lyrics together it feels very unified. 86TVs know how to interact with the crowd in a way that makes us fully engaged.
The strings and vocal members of the band are brothers and they all play really well together. The timings and melodies are perfected. Faced paced drumming accompanies heart felt and nostalgic sounds.
Cliffhanger notes which erupt into musical madness, where suspense turns into intense from the crowd is a regular occurrence. Fans are adoring and chanting the band members names in between song intervals.
The play a really well paced mix of songs, the crowd reacted greatly to the setlist consistently, it was all relatable with noticeable smiles on faces for the duration of the show.
Softer songs are listened to carefully now and there’s a huge energy shift in the room. Drums sound dimmed and muffled, softened and led by high hats. Vocals are staggered and echoing. Strings sound lost and uncertain and we can see the depth of the emotions in the band’s eyes.
They produce a set with music that comes in waves. Fluctuating between meaningful storytelling and feel-good songs with emphasis on the riffs.
Blue and yellow flashing lights are now matching the new pace of the set. Adrenaline charged one note strums turn to static booming with elongated bass chords and full throttle instrumentals and vocals. We get an incredible drum solo too.
The band pause to take in the applause after songs. The glance at each other numerous times throughout the set seeming proud of their accomplishments. They’re having so much fun and so are we.
They’re all very talented and put a lot of love into their music and performance.
Huge influxes in sounds now include thundering drums leading into final choruses and we’re swaying to the sounds. Melodies are suddenly sounding like butterfly wings fluttering on strings, twinkling and matching the sparkling lighting with backing vocals perfected and the bands eyes closed in concentration with emotive expressions on faces.
They’re instrumentally brilliant and keep us engaged by adding significant vocals and its perfectly blended.
“Higher love” was played with progressing scales from the band and the biggest vocals all night from the crowd who were absolutely in their element belting the choruses. It was such a special moment, the whole room had their arms around each other, until choruses ensued where they were then definitively raised in the air.
A hugely wholesome show where the crowd left on a complete high.
Artists: 86TVs, Imogen and the knife