LIVE REVIEW: Spanish Love Songs @ Lafayette, London
SPANISH LOVE SONGS‘ third album Brave Faces Everyone landed at the perfect time for many people, other than the band. Unfortunately for obvious reasons, the band weren’t able to tour it, but they’re still here for two intimate nights playing BFE in full each night.
The sole support is PRESS CLUB, whose emo-tinged skate punk lands in sonically similar waters. The room is already packed in anticipation, the intimate evening having sold out some time ago. The Aussies are clearly having a blast, with vocalist Natalie Foster venturing into the crowd early during Separate Houses and cracking jokes about her issues being short at shows. “Am I asking too nicely,” she quips of her polite request for a pit before demanding “I want a pit!” as the band tear through Headwreck with abandon. The crowd love it too, yelling back lyrics, bouncing and pitting whenever prompted for the full half hour. With just seven songs, they easily win the whole room over with hooky skate punk and a jovial, mates-down-the-pub attitude and it’s a raucous set showing they were a natural pick for the bill and a hell of a band in their own right.
Rating: 9/10
There’s no huge surprises in store for SPANISH LOVE SONGS’ set; everyone knows the bulk of the night will be dedicated to Brave Faces Everyone, though they do choose to open with Haunted from latest record No Joy as well as calling back to 2018’s Schmaltz. Haunted kicks things off at 11, the crowd bellowing back the words and deafening during its woah-oh refrain. Dylan Slocum is a magnetic frontman as ever, striding round the stage as he delivers the lyrics in his uniquely wavering voice. “I’m taking you back to when I was 25. You’re gonna hate yourselves and want to die,” he deadpans before Beer & Nyquil threatens to take the roof off the place. Raucous is an understatement for the crowd with Slocum and co clearly impressed by it as he laughs “the freaks are out tonight, I love it” as the room bellows along to the Schmaltz songs with glee.
Of course, tonight is about celebrating one album though, that had its tour unceremoniously cancelled by a global pandemic. From the opening lines of Routine Pain, it’s clear this is going to be even more special than imagined. Already intimate, it becomes a communal therapy session as 600 people revel in an album that sums up just how shit the world is for many of us. Kick, true to Slocum’s promise, pops off massively as does Losers with its “it gets harder doesn’t it” refrain. By the time the title track rings out its final notes, it’s difficult to express just how special the evening is and how much it has meant to everyone here.
Rating: 10/10
Check out our photo gallery of the night’s action in London from C Wilkinson Media here:
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