After releasing their second album in Spring and playing a huge number of festivals over summer from Glastonbury to Beach Break to a fort in Romania, Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip are in the middle of a tour that has taken them all over the country and is about to take them to Europe.
Kid A was up first, singing soulful melodies over some jazzy beats which sounds great on record but in an empty to room it didn’t seem right and didn’t grab me as anything special. Her DJ was hidden behind the speaker stack so with just Kid A on stage on her it seemed too much like karaoke and the bright pink wig certainly didn’t help. A busier room with a more up for it crowd would have made things more enjoyable and I can see Kid A going down great at a festival but tonight it didn’t cut it and was simply dreary.
The mood changed a lot with the next band Misty’s Big Adventure who soon had everyone dancing. They all sorts of influences going on and the horn section and addition of a man in fancy dress dancing around like a lunatic got everyone in the mood for the headline act and made sure they left their mark on the audience. The opposite of Kid A’s set they’re a band I would love to see live again but wouldn’t necessarily listen to them at home.
I’d spoken to Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip before the gig and they’d said they were ‘re-energized’ and ready to ‘smash the end’ of their tour and they certainly did tonight! They played a mixture of old and new, big hits and lesser known tracks but they had the whole room singing along no matter what they played with some people even knowing Scroobius Pip’s lyrics which is an impressive feat. I believe always better when the crowd are behind the act and tonight proved my theory. The best songs on the night were the classics ‘Letter From God to Man’ and ‘Thou shalt always kill’ as well as the hits off the new track ‘Sick Tonight’ and ‘Get Better’ all of which have memorable choruses that had everyone going crazy. There’s always a worry that their between song banter will get out of control and they did lose people a couple of times when they started chatting between themselves but mostly they had everyone laughing and it added to the overall performance. The stage was set up brilliantly with the name of the duo in lights behind them and Scroobius Pip’s trademark props went down a treat as well. Deservedly they were pulled back on stage for an encore and despite this everyone went home wanting more.
