A+ for School of Seven Bells

Holy crud...you twos are so dang cute!

[24th February 2009, The Captain’s Rest, Glasgow]

Shrove Tuesday; a day of flavoursome frivolity and, for us, psychedelic and futuristic musical wonderment.
The night began, after carefully selecting superior, sartorial splendour, with an encounter with a coquettish young gentleman who had just escaped from the sleeve of The Beatles’ seminal 1967 work, ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.’ It was however, a close shave. Alison misread the tickets and we arrived at the bash a full hour tardy.
But never fear! An attractive taxi driver got us to the venue in time to catch the second half of fellow New Yorkers Apache Beat. A lot of rage. The keyboardist appeared to be gently massaging stress balls (later identified as spherical maracas.)
Whilst waiting and re-hydrating at the bar before Kyte came on, we spied the ‘belles’ worryingly avoiding each other’s glances whilst flogging tote bags and copies of their new (and quite excellent) album ‘Alpinisms.’ We tried to work up the courage to interview them, but even after an invigorating two vodka and cranberries, failed.
Next up were the ambient, Leicestershire melodies of Kyte; whose cover of Peter Gabriel’s Salisbury Hill… was pretty shocking. To add insult to injury, the bassist was wearing a cap. We retreated upstairs for yet another vodka cranberry.
SHOWTIME!! Normally we have a collective aversion to twins of the identical nature, but Alejandra and Claudia Deheza’s crazed eyes drew us in to their performance (with the help of a cracking fringe from Alejandra.) In our opinion, the ethereal, lucid fusion of harmonious voices and plinky-plonky sounds was an ocular and auricular feast.

If you want to see School of Seven Bells, check ‘em out at the QM supporting the equally splendid Bat for Lashes on 8th April.