Yelle
As I enter Village Underground, the support act already on
stage and comfortably into their set.
I’ve see NZCA Lines before and liked them. Although it is
perhaps telling that I had not given the band a second thought from that day to
this.
The band play pleasant but utter unchallenging synth pop.
Singer Michael Lovett is wearing a nice crisp shirt and it is all very affable.
There may be hints of the precisely clipped ‘white’ sound of
acts like Hot Chip or even Scritti Politti, but ultimately there just isn’t
enough here to really get your teeth into and engage with.
Yelle is a French electronic artist who has been producing
Gallic club bangers for a number of years.
Tonight, Yelle (aka Julie Budet) is joined by two
identically-clad male drummers. She is only armed with a microphone, although
she occasionally bashes at a third, electronic drum pad. As the racing synth
music blasts out it becomes clear that anything up to around 80% of what we
will hear tonight is backing track.
This doesn’t really matter. The drummers are primarily here
to perform dance routines, posing and throwing shapes and only sporadically
actually playing their kit.
Yelle herself has a good voice and a winning personality
that she deploys to manipulate the crowd. We are happy to clap our hands, wave
them in the air like we just don’t care and ignore the artificiality and
absurdity of it all.
What does come as a surprise is how long the band plays for.
After a minor encore on the half hour mark they play for at least as long
again. It’s cheesy fun and the biggest cheer of the night comes when the two
drummers entwine and start snogging each other’s faces off.
Yelle are very much a club act. They would be happiest on a
podium in some Ibizan Manumission style dance shed.
They’re still pretty jolly on a cold night in Shoreditch.
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