June, 2012
With performances by John Talabot, Rudimental, Man Without Country and more.
After three nights of raucous guitars it was time for Represent to turn it’s attention to a different slice of the musical spectrum last night as the 100 Club embraced the pulsing electronic sounds of SBTRKT, John Talabot, Rudimental, Lemonade and Man Without Country. The dark and intimate surroundings of the club suited the music just fine with New Yorkers Lemonade starting proceedings with their wildly psychedelic yet melodic sound layering colourful washes of noise against Callan Clendenin’s vocals.
The first band streaming live on Converse TV were South Wales duo ‘Man Without Country’ whose sound filled the room with big synths and accomplished vocals that felt like they could have easily been at home on much larger festival stages.
Having played the 100 Club before at a previous Converse Gigs event John Talabot knew exactly what to expect and his live show, since honed on much larger stages like Sonar in Barcelona, was utterly captivating. Balancing atmosphere and raw emotion with dancefloor energy he had the crowd moving by the end of the first track and by the time big hitters from his debut ‘Fin’ came round like ‘Destiny’ all arms were aloft. It’s easy to see why the XX have chosen him as their main tour support this year.
Rudimental leaped in to the collective consciousness earlier this summer with ‘Feel The Love’, a gospel tinged slice of feel good drum and bass that featured vocalist John Newman. They didn’t disappoint, closing the set with an extended rendition featuring live vocals from the man himself. Before that they had worked through a selection of garage and bass heavy cuts adding a shade of the UK underground to proceedings.
SBTRKT also has the roots of his sound firmly in underground UK bass but over the course of an hour those roots flew in all directions on a kaleidoscopic whirlwind that took in house, techno, electro and more set against tribal live percussion and vocals from special guest Sampha.
The result is one of the most impressive, accomplished and downright danceable live sets out there today. A few hundred people in The 100 Club were lucky enough to see it first hand, and many thousand watched it live on Converse TV. If you didn’t manage to catch it watch the video footage above and then get out there this summer and see the man in action, you won’t regret it.
Stay tuned to facebook.com/converse for updates throughout the rest of the shows.
