Trust me, I love a good alt. rock band. One that plays brilliantly crafty numbers that you can get stuck into. But the music world is busy. So busy even those with several thousand streams online are considered standard appeal by some of the business types. Numbers don’t mean everything though; sometimes your ears will tell you when something special is cooking up. Following a name chance and a splurge of new music releases Loa Loa are one of the latest school of ‘shit hot’ (professional term) rock coming out of Brighton.
Performing for the House Of Savages crew under a previous guise, the last 6-8 months have been a phenomenal step up for Loa Loa, having released more music, been supported by BBC Introducing and Huw Stephens on BBC Radio 1 plus the alt. rock press of the country sniffing around for stories and showcases. We’re pretty stoked to have them back in their rightful place as headliner for our 24th night. Nearly our 2nd birthday and we’ve been honoured to have someone like this be part of the story.
But let’s get serious about the music here. What we’re dealing with is a proper gutsy grunge /post-hardore band that’s got plenty of riffs and plenty of tame screaming and mosh pit moments in each track. “Only Son” is the first track that’ll greet you on the Soundcloud page and one that will give you a great introduction to what this fiery trio are about. Tracks like “Monet” give you a little bit more of a chorus lock in to learn the words to whilst “Landslide” is another radio friendly number that clearly stands away from the pop masses. A valued thing in a society where bands are so pressured to change their style and sound to be more ‘appealing’. Whatever that means. We’re in a phase now where there’s a group of cool underdog bands rising up like there was in the early 00s. Hell Is For Heroes, Reuben, Hundred Reasons…all have achieved cult status through their defining of a generation of rock fans and Loa Loa (alongside bands like Tigercub, Demob Happy and Fangclub) are 2016’s class.