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Gig - The Hat
Sometimes you see a poster of a band and you know you’re
going to like the music they make. The Hat looked cool and
thoughtful, at the same time. Poetic and streetwise. Rare
bedfellows in the music world. ‘A combination’
read the poster ‘of stories to melt your mind and songs
to bend your heart. Think Tom Waits reading Roald Dahl over
a soundtrack composed by Danny Elfman, played by the Beastie
Boys and you'll almost be half way there’. So I dug
around the net a bit, found their myspace
site, listened to a couple of tracks. They billed themselves
as hip hop/folk/alternative, which says a lot. The first song
was called Less of a Lover, and it was a heartfelt voiceover
poem which turned into a song, building up in power and tempo
until a crescendo after which it slowed down again and its
message was revealed: ‘Be with your pain but don’t
let the pain contain you. Be with your pain but know that
it’s not all there is to you. There’s so much
of you still to shine through.’ These were Brighton
kids singing about emotional turmoil. Cool.
The second song ‘Open Heart’ suggested that The
Hat came out of the same South Coast ether as Lansdown regulars
Turning Green. A lyrical chorus ‘every open heart needs
working on’ joined by increasingly frenetic and high-pitched
rap strings. I’m not sure I liked this one, but I knew
I didn’t dislike it either. It made me want to hear
more, and I will, on Saturday. AL |
