Warpaint, @ Scala, 28th October

Was I excited? Yes.

Did I buy an overpriced t shirt? Yes.

Was it awesome? Yes.

A cold Thursday night in London saw me heading to Scala to see Warpaint on what I believe was the final night of a short UK tour to support their debut that had hit the shelves at the start of the week. Now Scala isn’t a massive venue, although it’s not exactly a pub back room either, so you could have been forgiven for thinking that this was going to be one of those slightly tame, everyone stands with their arms folded and nods in time to the music gigs that you sometimes get when a new band comes to town. You would have been wrong, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

Support band wise, it was a pretty solid affair. First on were 2.54, unsigned and from London. At first glance and listen they looked like a totally cliché of a support act. Girl fronted, grungy and a bit mysterious looking it was like the booking manager was trying to build a show full of bands that fit the sterotype of ‘girls’ in ‘rock’. However, a few songs in and it was pretty obvious they were something with a little more substance; they had good songs at least, one to check out for the future.

Second on were Fiction, who most definitely didn’t fit any alt. girl stereotyping. Instead they looked more like a shit load of twenty something ‘trendy’ types thrown into a barrel and shaken up a bit. Sounded that way too, all synths, tribal percussion and crazy guitar effects. They got a bit of movement going (everyone in the crowd had until then been suffering from support band paralysis) but to be honest, weren’t worth much more. Sorry guys…

But anyway, now we move to the main event. Now remember how I said that Scala is a pretty small venue? Well it didn’t sound or feel like it when Warpaint hit the stage at just before ten. The place went absolutely nuts. Like really, it was a bit surreal, they hadn’t played a note and it felt like an encore.

And from there, it just went up and up. The songs, old and new, all fit, people knew the words despite the fact that ‘The Fool’ has only been out a week or so. There was a lot of hugging, the obligatory chants of ‘I fucking love you’ (mostly supplied in this case by a very drunk Scotsman) and a hypnotic atmosphere covered the whole event. Songs like ‘Undertow’ and initial set closer ‘Elephants’ were greeted by some of the loudest screams I’ve ever heard at a gig, but equally the less well known numbers kept pretty much everyone I could see entranced. I’ve seen bands hold the attention a tent full of drunken festival goers with sheer physical energy and in your face madness (Gallows anyone?) but this was something different. The band were pretty much just standing there, moving with their own music, but there was something truly spell binding about the whole thing. Even when, mid-set, a guitar amp cut out, the bubble wasn’t burst. They improvised seamlessly and half the crowd probably didn’t notice.

Of course, they did an encore after ‘Elephants’ that had everyone going nuts again. Finishing with ‘Billie Holiday’ I wouldn’t be surprised if people were crying in the audience. It was certainly hairs of back of neck time at the very least.

And with that, it was over. They stumbled off triumphantly, we all stumbled home a bit dazed and, overall, it was more than a little wonderful.

Oh, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a band look so happy throughout en entire gig.

They’re playing Barfly in Novemeber, go and see. Like, seriously- book your ticket now.

And now as ever, some videos for you…