W: Erin Heffernan
Radio Free Alice take on the UK playing 5 sold out east London shows (and many more!) throughout summer.
Radio Free Alice are a Melbourne based post punk band. After discovering them through Spotify DJ (embarrassing I know) I scrambled over to Instagram to find out more about them only to be met with the fact that they’re from the other side of the world and as a relatively new band I would probably never see them live.
So, you can probably imagine my excitement when I FINALLY managed to secure tickets for July 29th at the George tavern.
After spending a few hours around east London we finally headed to the venue only to be so early that our ears were blessed by Radio Free Alice doing sound checks before the gig.
Finally, the support band came on. Humane the moon. They performed an emotion fuelled set powered by an intense raw east London accent, screaming and what can only be described as Ian Curtis-esque movements. A band I’d recommend seeing live and a band I would jump at the opportunity of seeing live again myself!
After a tense, excitement filled 15-minute wait, Radio Free Alice hopped on stage and began with their most popular song “Look what you’ve done”. What a way to start a show. The crowd immediately started jumping and singing along.
My favourite song of the night was Spain. Live, the tension was built from the very beginning until the chorus when no one can help but dance and sing along. The passion and raw emotions of this song are incredibly evident but even more when live.
Paris is gone was the penultimate song (one of my personal favourites) met with a raucous response from the crowd. Pushing and shoving. The people in front of me nearly ended up on the stage with the band.
With their sound (think The Smiths, Joy division etc), The crowd jumping and singing together in a sweaty, claustrophobic, 250 capacity pubs in a crevice in east London with sticky floors, I can finally stop complaining about being born in the wrong generation.