Honeyblood are a band to watch in 2015 – trust me.
On Wednesday night they played to a sold out Oslo Hackney after two excellent support slots from Our Girl and Bloody Knees.
Honeyblood’s self-titled debut album was my record of 2014. I probably shouldn’t say that. I should probably give you a top 10 and add songwriting brilliance such as New Gods by Withered Hand, Larkin Poe’s country-rock-pop corker Kin, or the stupendous self-titled debut from Alvvays. I’m not going to. The album I was completely addicted to was Honeyblood’s.
I saw them rattle through this album at Rough Trade East and then the Sebright Arms last year. At the second of these shows Cat Myers had just joined Stina Tweeddale as the new drummer after Shona McVicar left the band after “feeling it wasn’t for her for quite a while”. It was a great performance – rocking along with Tweeddale’s heartbreakingly beautiful and feisty vocals doing every song justice. However, as much as it felt like they were meant to be on that stage, it was slightly awkward in terms of their relationship with the crowd.
Not so on Wednesday night at the Oslo. It would appear that Honeyblood are starting to realise they belong on that stage too. This was apparent from the dramatic increase in interactions with the crowd from both women, including a harmonious bit of audience participation on the sumptuous b-side Kissing On You. It’s also obvious that Myers has added more attack from the drums, which has given them a heavier live sound, complimenting Tweeddale’s soaring, and sometimes almost snarling, vocals and sharp lyrics.
From the blistering opening of Fall Forever through to summery single Bud and the darkness and lyrical brilliance of Choker, tracks that had been performed a lot still sounded fresh and fun. Both swinging Fortune Cookie and the simply beautiful No Spare Key felt like they’d had the right amount of rock treatment. The audience, many of whom seemed to know every word of the songs, needed no encouragement to dance to the raucous All Dragged Up but it was good to hear Myers’ voice from behind the drums asking “if anyone fancies a bit of a dance tonight, now is the time to do it”.
The venom in Tweeddale’s voice for the “I will hate you forever” sing along chorus of Super Rat is a perfect example of the power and depth her voice has while still having an intense sweet aftertaste to it.
“We sold this place out and that’s f*cking great” says Tweeddale before kicking off punky single Killer Bangs (which is about McVicar and not a love story as it’s often misread as) and although she’s right and it is cheesey to thank the audience you get the impression that they are genuinely thankful for the support they are receiving. I’m sure selling out venues is something they will quickly get used to as 2015 continues.
During encore track Kissing On You Tweeddale, playing solo, sings “I don’t think I could ever stop, I don’t know how to turn you off”and I can confidently say that we won’t be turning them off any time soon.
Set list:
Fall Forever
Biro
(I’d Rather Be) Anywhere But Here
Bud
Fortune Cookie
Joey
Choker
No Spare Key
All Dragged Up
Super Rat
Braidburn Valley
Killer Bangs
Encore:
Kissing On You
The Black Cloud