Wednesday 17th March 2010 @ Thekla, Bristol
With Support From: Teeth, Is Tropical

You don’t even have to be on board the Thekla to hear tonight’s opening band. Teeth are a Hackney-based three-piece and they certainly don’t do things in half measures. The drums are emphatically bashed away at, the laptop is literally danced around the stage and the vocals come courtesy of a tiny front woman with one hell of a pair of lungs. The music itself sometimes sounds compelling but is somewhat lost behind the screamy vocals and unfortunately a few songs in, they become a grating distraction. It seems that nobody here tonight quite knows what to make of them.

Main support comes from Is Tropical and when they enter the stage with their faces covered with scarves, it seems that the weirdness is set to continue. Thankfully though they’re a different beast entirely; thumping bass lines, ridiculously tight drumming and songs that switch between Nintendo inspired instrumentals and Klaxons style chant-alongs draw the crowd in and gets the night firmly back on track.

It’s been three years since New Young Pony Club released their Mercury-nominated debut album, Fantastic Playroom, and it seems that they’ve done some growing up in that time. New album, The Optimist, is a darker, edgier sounding record with many of the songs appearing to deal with the break-up of front-woman Tahita Bulmer’s relationship. Thankfully for us though, said break-up doesn’t seem to have dampened her spirits too much as tonight’s performance is full of energy and defiance - and what a performance it is! She holds the crowd in the palm of her hand from start to finish and while the rest of the band more than play their part, it is undoubtedly her show.

The set itself is perfectly balanced with new songs such as Lost A Girl and We Want To mixed seamlessly with older material. Even throwing in their biggest song to-date, Ice Cream, mid-set does nothing to disrupt the flow. In today’s climate of ready-made popstars, it’s great to see a band who not only seem so at-ease playing live on stage, but are actually all the better for it. Certain songs that fall a little flat on record really come alive tonight. They’ve been away far too long but it was definitely worth the wait.

www.newyoungponyclub.com

Tom Johnson