Crack

Havana Club rum and Crack Magazine came together in October in the first of a series of monthly parties in Start The Bus that aim to showcase the best in new music across a range of styles.

Tonight’s entertainment comes courtesy of two vastly contrasting, yet equally original musical forms. Firstly, Trophy Wife bring their soft blend of sun soaked, hazy guitar pop to a receptive array of nodding heads. Letting the beautiful rhythms wash over them, the band retains a hugely captivated audience to the end of their set. Having just been signed to Moshi-Moshi records and supporting Foals on their current UK tour, this gig acts as a brilliant pre-cursor to the band playing much bigger venues to huge audiences over the next two months.

As the queue gets outside grows and the queue inside for the free entry shot of Havana Club rum gets bigger as more people come through the door, it’s easy to see how this night will become a big draw. Combining a live band with more dance floor orientated material later in the evening is a weekend balancing act most parties sometimes struggle to get right. Tonight isn’t a problem, with Canterbury’s dub/house/indefinable group of producers - The Longreach Collective - in attendance.

Fronted by the effervescent Dolo, and headlined by the quite brilliant Dam Mantle, similarly quality sets from Dansmeth, Ekoda Map and Casio Movement keep the off-kilter beats rolling deep into the night.

With cheap entry and a free drink on arrival, there is a high demand for this night before midnight. With future parties promising to secure bigger acts before they burst through to higher echelons, there is no question this new Bristol imprint has made a very solid start to the city’s changing nightlife spectrum.



Words: Lucinda Bounsall

http://www.havana-club.com/

http://longreachcollective.blogspot.com/

http://www.myspace.com/atrophywife

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