Live Review

Electric Soft Parade @ Club Fandango! – 229, Great Portland St

• 19th Sep 2007

Last weekend saw the brilliant Club Fandango at 229, Great Portland St return to London. Backed by BBC 6 Music, BMI, fierce panda and Diesel and indiestore.com, it’s a mini festival with lots of acts and variety. Set over two rooms, the venue recalls ULU and creates a lovely, warm acoustic vibe.

There were several acts playing but, after reviewing their latest release, The Electric Soft Parade stood out. Although their albums are superb it was hard to see how they could recreate such an expansive sound live. As it turned out, the set was immaculate.

It’s so nice to hear a band play with freedom and write as if they couldn’t care less about what will sell. They really seem to enjoy the tunes they make. The Electric Soft Parade have a transatlantic retro charm that celebrates all that is good about melody and instrumental ensemble. It’s the sort of music that you would put on if you were driving up the west coast of America on a beautiful summer evening in your convertible. ‘Misunderstanding’ sums this vibe up perfectly and is a real belter of a song.

Every band draws influence from somewhere and Electric Soft Parade are no different – they just happen to have chosen particularly wisely, with references ranging from Simon and Garfunkel and The Byrds through to the more modern sounds of the excellent French band ‘Pheonix’. There is very little not to like, ok! I must remember to ‘Fandango’ again some time soon.