We were treated to one of The Netherlands finest Indie bands tonight and it's a close thing to call between who appreciated this gig more; The Klittens themselves, who were near bursting and enjoying being out on tour in the UK (and Edinburgh again), or the audience - a close to sell-out crowd who turned out in numbers for a superb evening of indie pop perfection.
The Klittens have gone under the radar a bit so far and not that widely known, having only put out a few e.p. releases, but this gig was pretty packed. What comes to mind is the German language thing of crashed-together words and compound nouns which describe something more succinctly (like shadenfreude; pleasure derived from another person’s misfortune; treppenwitz; the staircase joke, meaning the witty comeback you concocted too late; and my favourite die schildktote; shield toad, which is tortoise). I’m reminded of this because there should be one of these words for; many groups of older gig-goers going to see an up-and-coming band in a small venue while they can before that band makes it big. Whatever that word needs to be (answers on a postcard please!), this gig was one of those with a large Edinburgh Gigeratti contingent here, two or three other groups of regular gigging pals and a few other familiar faces, including – and especially -  a very welcome return to the live music scene for Gigging Angus, who’s been off the radar for a few years but now back into the scene (if you're reading this, great to see you - you’ll be back in the mosh pit in no time!).
At the pre-gig meet-up DJ Gez, Gigeratti Ian & me found ourselves scratching our heads trying to navigate the Bow Bars weird fruit (& chocolate) beer selections (Mango Coconut Sour, Rhubarb Radler, Raspberry, Passion Fruit to name a few) for their summer beer festival. And after a few quick rounds of tastebud roulette headed in for the support act Corinne.
I haven’t been able to find out much about this local-ish band, but they gave a good, short set of songs - full on, thrashy and energetic young punk sound (also in the running for most delighted to be on stage tonight). Keep an eye out for their future gigs, definitely well worth a listen.
The Klittens general sound I’d describe a melodic jangly Indiepop, which is what we got, but live, we were also treated to some heavier, rawer sounds (at times, veering between these styles in the same song). Manic Dixi Dream Girl kicked things off with an intro that The Stooges would’ve been proud of. Reading Material and Pristine Blue brought us back towards the upbeat Indie side of their sound. It slowed down with a detour into the German lyric, melancholy of Liebe Resi. Atlas, Universal Experience (my highlight of the set) and Traffic Light lifted the mood (and then some) and had some of the crowd singing along in full support. When lead singer Yael Dekker pointed out the stance of the bass and guitar playing trio of the band, all lined up symmetrically to one side of the stage in the style of a classic Sixties Motown or Soul group, it wasn’t just their movement when playing that showed how synchronised they were – as a group (with a few of them fairly new additions to the band I think) their playing was tight, confident and absolutely note-perfect. Nice matching boots too!
They brought the house down with their final three songs, Canned Air, Acid Violet 43 and Hold(?) to end the set on a louder high (I’m not exactly sure on the name of the last song as I couldn’t find it online from what was written on the setlist. Note: thanks to the young gigger who let me take a snap of the setlist for this write up! Sorry, Setlist Guy, but I’ve forgotten your name!).
While the gig finished relatively early, a good fifteen minutes before Sneakys usual 10pm curfew, nobody seemed to mind and it still took longer than usual to get out past the longest merch queue I’ve seen at this venue. Against better judgement we headed back for more selbststrafe (self-punishment) of fruit beers and good blether afterwards to round off a very enjoyable Sunday evening with some fine friends and great music. Check out The Klittens and hopefully they'll be back to Edinburgh soon. At a bigger venue for sure, I'll bet my Strawberry Pale Ale on it .
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