Do believe the hype, Drowners live
Published
Subba-Cultcha favourites the Drowners play a free gig in East London.
Drowners @ The Old Blue Last 8/10
The upstairs of Shoreditch's Old Blue Last is rammed, everyone is here to see what the buzz is about the Drowners, having delivered an exciting debut (read our review here) they are on a brief UK tour wasting no time with introductions they launch straight into Ways To Phrase A Rejection and proceed to play the entire album in order, the only slight change to the running order was playing Bar Chat last. Their sound is New York garage rock, throwing in elements of The Strokes with singer Matt Hitt's spoken drawl style vocals similar to those of Julian Casablanca’s and early Vaccines guitar style. Beneath the New York haze there is also a definite Smiths influence flowing through the lyrics and guitars.
Their self titled debut album clocks in at 28 minutes, their songs are punchy, smart and instantly appealing. You’ve Got It Wrong, in all its one minute and 50 seconds glory is witty and Unzip Your Harrington is borderline laughable but sang with such sincerity it’s hard not to get caught up in the world of the Drowners. Like their album, Drowners live bring with them a cocky, almost but not quite overly confident swagger, regardless of how bassist Erik Lee Snyder sees himself, its singer Hitt that is the front man, there’s no avoiding the fact he is a male model, handsome, charming with fantastic hair all eyes are drawn to him – exactly what you want from your rock stars.
They came on stage late and the set barely stretched to 30 minutes in which time they tore through their album and finished without an encore, like a whirling dervish of noise, they have a live energy and cocksure swagger that hasn’t been seen since glory years from The Libertines. After the gig they even hung around to chat with fans, they currently on tour supporting Skaters next week, with this line up you’d be an idiot to miss them live.
http://drownersband.com/
