With a four day, long weekend looming over the country, it’s a much-welcomed Thursday night as those who have already started to party continue, and those looking for a good time head down to Camden’s Powerhaus. Though many different names have been painted on its doors, Powerhaus has played host to a plethora of artists over the last few decades and remains a true focal point of London’s talent brimmed music scene.
The line-up tonight is an electronic, rock triple threat mashup featuring Carvel, Blame My Youth and the New York hailing headliners, The Score. It’s a sold-out show and the much-anticipated finale to various postponements and pushbacks due to the obvious.
Carvel provides the fairly young demographic with an opening set that is both decorated and fresh. Large white cubes hang from the ceiling, matching their onstage attire, allowing us into their inner circle of a brand image as tightly executed as their playing. Carvel has funk, style and the ability to rouse a crowd into simultaneously bobbing their heads and bodies to a beat they didn’t know they loved. ‘Cannot Not Dance’ and ‘Your Place or Mine?’ amongst others showcase the band’s talent as well as their genuine joy to be sharing their material with the welcoming crowd.
Supporting tonight is Blame My Youth. With Sean Van Vleet (Click Here To Check Out Our Interview With Sean Here) as the captain at the helm of this passion-driven project, I was very much eager to see if the whether the live show would match the online figures that see the band hit over a million streams on their first and only EP (any fellow musician knows this to be quite a ruddy good thing!).
An ethereal toned backing track sets the scene under a pink and blue-lit low hanging mist. The instrumentalists take to the stage; guitar and bass in their own pastel colour palette onesie uniforms and drums hitting the sleek factor in all black. Van Vleet then bounds onstage clad in his own theme of off-white casual styling, beer in hand and a cap to launch a thousand different looks in the space of a thirty-minute set
The energy is immense. Every dirty snarl to the audience, each battleground howl creates the feeling that we are in the presence of a Wembley sized show in a mid-level venue. Van Vleet’ is the middle finger flipping off puppet master pouring every inch of his fervour into each infectious hook. If an artist’s work could only be defined by its writing then Blame My Youth would have already hit the nail on the head. Take that and add this wildly intoxicating show and you already have a winner before they’ve even left the gates.
Starting with their collaboration number with The Score, ‘Dance With My Demons’, the band go on to play most of their mouth-wateringly short discography. ‘Fantastic’ and ‘Tentacles’ blast out their anthemic touch whilst newer, unreleased material such as ‘Only Love You When You’re Dead’ is also a catch.
If there would be one sentence, to sum up, Blame My Youth’s live show, I’d say this: you know you have ‘em when you’ve got an entire venue that didn’t buy tickets to your show singing along at full pelt to your songs, hands to the sky with a compelling amount of excitement lingering in the air.
With the first two acts sending the night into great spirits for the upcoming headliners, the room packs out and the lights start to dim right on time.
The Score consists of Eddie Anthony Ramirez (lead vocals, guitar) and Edan Chai Dover (backing vocals, keys, and producer) with the onstage help of Chris Coombs on guitar and Logan Baldwin on drums. Having been on a non-stop ascent since its formation back in 2011, the band has had frequent exposure on media outlets such as videogames, Netflix, The Super bowl and even Norwich F.C’s home turf video package.
Teeming with adoring fans, the camera phones shoot up and thumbs hit record as The Score make their entrance to a squealing crowd who jump forward in unison, getting as close to the show as they can. Whether it was deliberate or not, they look symmetrically fantastic with Ramirez and Baldwin in white whilst Dover and Coombs don black.
There is an immediate connection between the two frontmen and their willing crowd as not a drop of enthusiasm is wasted with each delicious synth pop-rock overpour. The band course through their hits such as ‘Enemies’, ‘Born For This’, ‘Top of the World’ and ‘Pull The Chord’, heading into quieter numbers with intense integrity before re-grasping momentum in those crowd chanting enthrallers.
Stand out moments come from multi-media drummer Baldwin whose kit consists of half acoustic, half electric elements that provide the backbone of the rhythm section with enough diversity and ‘true to the record’ sounds. It’s always a pleasure to see talent in action and much respect can be thrown in multi-instrumentalist Dover’s way as he switches between keyboard and bass whilst finding enough time to jump up front and centre to stir up the crowds.
Fan favourites ‘In My Blood’, ‘Fighter’ and ‘Glory’ also make appearances before The Score bring out – of course – ‘Unstoppable’ and ‘Legend’.
It’s a sterling show with a vocal performance from Ramirez to melt the young ears of the industry who seem to form their fan base with the utmost dedication. The Score knows how to have fun but does it in a well-executed, defined way that leaves no doubt when questioning their highly held status on the scene. I’m sure they’ll soon be back to the UK with equal zest, drive and quite possibly an even larger collection of unforgettable tracks.
Review: Monty Sewell
Photography: Stephen Andrews