Spanish Heat Meets British Grit at Soundhood East

Words: Joseph Murphy Images: Alex Amoros

Paper Dress Vintage is home to some of the best indie gigs I’ve managed to catch in recent times and a British/Spanish sound crossover event, courtesy of SON Estrella Galicia is a perfect blend.

Opening with a bouncing, lively set by indie-rock quartet Toldos Verdes, the night began with a certain nostalgia for easier times of sheer fun. Self-identifying with musical simplicity, the band were loved by the crowd at their first show in the UK. A dancefloor soon opened up, early into their first number.

A personal favourite, the ghostly opening guitar of ‘Es Una Pena’ (translating to It’s a Shame), blends into a garage-bedroom rock style. Soaked in a haunting, longing vocal line, the track captures feelings of absence and distance perfectly wrapped in a painful and crunching soundscape.

‘Sin Ti (No Quiero)’ – I don’t want to be without you, was the number which jumped the crowd to another level, calling on a guitar tone I can liken to Two Door Cinema Club, overlayed with The Vaccines’ lively emptiness. With a call and response, the Spanish members of the audience relay the lyrics right back to the four-piece, with a passion and strength of a fanbase willing to travel far and wide in support.

Following them, was thistle. A band that is inexplicably loud and dangerous in their grunge-gaze, discordant set. Sharing songs from their latest EP, ‘backflip’, the band bring to mind the obvious comparison between Bleach 9:3’s lyrical style and Nirvana’s rhythm section.

An obvious frustration behind the Northampton trio’s sound, bent with an almost impulsive irony of the lyricism. Dizzying across multiple keys, the group wants for nothing from an audience willing to thrash to a band that truly show their stuff live.

‘Pieces’, the first track of the EP, shows off the band’s lamentability, with a staunchly grasping vocal from singer Cameron Godfrey. ‘Mean Eye’,was a wildness overlaid with dissonant and distorted lead guitar lines.

A wholly emotive sound, I will be putting tabs on both groups for the future, eager to see what’s in store.