TV On The Radio @ Shepards Bush

TV On The Radio / The Big Pink
Shepards Bush Empire
19th November.

The Big Pink shuffle on to the stage nervously, they needn’t have. While sharing a stage with TVOTR must be daunting for a band still very much in their infancy, they clearly have the gusto to pull it off. Spearheaded by Merok records Milo Cordell and former Alec Empire protégé Robbie Furse they tear through their short set. Evoking Spacemen 3 & Animal Collective, The Big Pink are currently creating quite the buzz in London. If they continue to develop at their current pace they may well deliver one of the key debut’s of 2009.

TV On The Radio have the audience in the palm of their hands from the opening chords of Young Liars. Lead singer Tunde Adebimpe’s impeccable delivery causes bouts of hypnotic rapture throughout the audience. Tonight we get a set comprising of the bulk of Dear Science. In a live environment the songs take on a far more visceral quality, the raw bassline in Dancing Choose particularly is extenuated and reverberates the Empires aged walls. A punky run through of Wolf Like Me receives a particularly ecstatic response. While he maybe one of the most envied and in demand producers on the planet at the moment, Dave Sitek seems quite content to take a back seat in TVOTR’s live show, manically shaking the wind chimes that sit on the neck of his Telecaster.

Concluding the set with a sped up Staring At The Sun proves to be a popular choice. Could TV On The Radio take on the unthinkable? A critic’s favourite who know exactly how to work a crowd??