As it does every year, SXSW has thrown up a number of exciting hype bands to get our teeth into and Estrons are no exception. The band have been championed by the likes of Huw Stephens, Phil Taggart and many more can’t be a bad thing. Their headline show at The Waiting Room, Stoke Newington is my chance to see what all the buzz is about.
The venue is in the bowls of The Three Crowns bar. One of, if not the smallest space I have ever been to, barley holding 50 plus eager fans bathed in pale blue light. Dub reggae floats from the speakers as The Waiting Room slowly fills, the basement space is small but the anticipation is huge.
Our Girl are tonight’s one and only support, a slacker/shoegaze three piece, fronted by the beautifully melancholic Soph Nathan. They rattle through their half-hour set of distortion and refrain, stand out track ‘Sleeper’ veers from all out noise to luxurious soft guitars holding up Soph’s warm vocals. The haunting echo breathing guitar lick that polishes of the song could fade on forever.
Nothing more of a “Thank you” is offered up between songs, bass player Josh births a dreamy swell that builds gracefully into Our Girl’s last track of the night. It jumps seamlessly between noise and floating reverb, it ends in a barrage of distortion and energy much bigger than the three piece themselves. Expertly built, the sound grows into a monster as layers and layers are perfectly chucked on top of one and other. Soph shows the band aren’t all teenage sulk, as she cracks a hard earned smile, says thank you one more time and ends the set.
Thirty minutes later Estrons wonder through the crowd and hop on stage, The Waiting Room is crammed! Feedback screeches and then pop-punk riffs slam into the crowd, opening with ‘Belfast’. Vocalist Taliesyn Källström, barefoot and bouncing about on stage is the spit of a young Hayley Williams, passionate and scared of nothing. In seconds its already clear to see that Estrons are destined for bigger stages. Scrappy, spiky guitar and manic energy is tonight’s dish, served with a shout of “I wish I was dead!”
“Let’s keep it romantic shall we…” introduces ‘Java’, the band are stupidly tight but Tali’s mic sounds like she’s singing into a tin can. Their sound fills every crevice of the basement and is trying desperately to force its way out, people are actually climbing the walls
to see. ‘Aliens’ is offered up next launching itself from slow burner into full blown punk thrash, seeing the guys cut loose as much as they can on the tiny stage, a bit like a tiger in a circus cage. “Thanks for coming out, I know it was sunny. You could be at a barbeque but instead you’re in a basement barbequing yourselves”, the whole crowd laughs. She has everyone eating out of the palm of her hand.
The first chords of break through track ‘Make A Man’ sees the throng perk up, the frantic guitar and 100 mph bass, (seriously I have never seen bass played that fast or manic before), slice through the thick, sweaty air like a hot knife through butter. The lyrics are spat out with furry and yells of ‘I’d like to make a man out of you” are screamed back at the stage with equal passion. The incredibly abrupt end sees the biggest cheer of the night.
Estrons end of their latest single ‘Drop’, introduced with Tali announcing “This was written in the deps of a police cell at the end of January…”, “You should have seen the other guy!”
A steaming assault is what the audience is given for the final time. Attitude oozing out of the speakers and the band bouncing around stage as much as possible, the solo is ear splitting-ly epic as Estrons come back in for the final punch to knock The Waiting Room out cold.
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