Live Review: High Tails, Zefereli, Solid Effort

It was quiet between the four walls of the Newtown Social Club as Solid Effort, a relatively new band to the scene, hand picked by the headliners, took to the small stage. The band played leisure punk with a mix of indie rock. Throughout the set they tempered with tempo a lot, making the atmosphere quite woozy and confusing. Through their glittering guitars the band managed to prep the crowd for a kind of pastiche night of flashback musical bangers. Due to this, the audience began to feel as if they were intruders in the 1980’s underground music scene.

Zefereli played a pleasing set showcasing their genre fluidity as their tune Are You My Friend flowed with folk vibes, where as their tune 54321 echoed with extreme pop sensibility but then their track Laura portrayed characteristics of a pop love ballad, some also including a slight country twang or psychedelic quality. Their new song Chains was the complete standout. The song was played with a backing track, although the texture, layering and grungy cool frequencies filled the small room completely, an instant hit with everyone. Chains was hauntingly rhythmic, the syncopated call and response tactics created a contagiously catchy tune.

To finish, High Tails wow’d the crowd from the get go with their upbeat and polished uproar of amazing tunes. Feels Right was bursting with energy as the synth glowed, guitars shredded, and the ‘oomph’ by each band member was hyped up to 1000. The performance was quite theatrical, with expressive facials and hair flying everywhere, encouraging the once stiff audience to go crazy and groove along. Give It Up took the set to a more slow-burning ballad pace, but with a twist. The spiral curved into a kind of barbour shop quartet harmony, coming from the three vocalists in the band. Although, once the beat kicked in the song resembled the '80s new romantic/new wave band Spandau Ballet in their early underground years with the repetitive melody quality, rather than a vocal quartet. The audience exploded into cheers as High Tails played their hit, Bending Over Backwards, a masterpiece with its groovy, rock vs slow driving pop, which mixed together to create something uniquely catchy and unforgettable. To finish, My Heart the single in which the tour celebrated flourished with strong pulses, elongated guitar roars and shreds. High Tails over all exceeded expectations with their absolute explosive set; their music better heard live then heard anywhere else.