Heartworms at the Moth Hackney. Intimate gig in a sweaty pub-type hall where the band have to walk through the punters to get on/off stage. Slightly incongruous for a band with a big sound and clearly going for the big time. The singer really gave it some welly both vocally and in her movement routines (close to mime on occasions). She is quite striking visually which is not going to harm promotions.
I've seen her a couple of times and yes, she is a great performer - massive stage presence, which is surprising considering how
TINY she is.
For me slightly let down by the use of backing tapes. Hopefully on a bigger budget they can get another band member to do keyboards and tech stuff live. It really makes a big difference to the feel of a gig IMO.
It's something I can always forgive when it's an up-and-coming band who, as you say, don't have the budget. I read an interview with Lily Fontaine of English Teacher recently when she was talking about the costs of touring and basically they make no money from it at all (although English Teacher are starting to fill up bigger venues now so hopefully they're able to make a living out of it).
Billy Nomates got a lot of stick for her Glastonbury set last year when it was just her on stage with backing tapes for accompaniment but I thought she was great. It comes down to how good are the songs and how well are they performed. Yes, it's better with a full band but I'd far rather see a performer I like singing great songs with a tape than a shit band singing shit songs.
I've not been to Moth before but I've got tickets for a gig there in a few weeks - Industry Standard, who I saw supporting Warmduscher last year and they were great fun so I've been looking forward to a chance to see them again. Tickets for that one are FREE! so they definitely won't be making any money out of that. I might feel morally obliged to at least buy a T-shirt.
And talking of Billy Nomates, I'm seeing her in Margate in December, at WhereElse? which sounds very similar to Moth, in that it's tiny and the band have to go through the crowd to get to the stage (saw the aforementioned English Teacher there earlier this year).
