The XX: Shepherd’s Bush Empire (2/03/10)
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010
The XX played one of their most high-profile gigs so far tonight when they began a 2-night mini residency of the Shepherd’s Bush Empire. Their superb debut has been something of a slow-burner, but after their recent appearance on the cover of the NME, and their fame spreading across the Atlantic (The XX was voted one of the top ten albums of the year in Rolling Stone’s end of year poll), this was a hugely anticipated show and the hottest tickets in town, we concluded as Daisy Lowe walked past.
Opening with the instrumental Intro, the band appeared as huge silhouettes behind an enormous white curtain before it dropped to reveal the three members of the XX dressed in black against a simple backdrop. As they began to play Crystalised, the first thing that became clear was how superb singer and guitarist Romy Madley Croft’s voice sounded, especially live, it was quite outstanding. As it dovetailed with Oliver Sim’s, who also plays the bass, it seems these voices were made for each other. However, until three songs in I was wondering whether this kind of music may be better listened to at home, or at least in a much smaller venue than the Empire.
Something happened during third song Heart Skipped a Beat though -suddenly the crowd were transfixed. Croft’s voice, the sparse guitar, deep and rich bass and sharp drumbeats combined to produce something greater than the sum of its parts. From that moment on very few people went to the bar, and you could hear a pin drop during the quieter moments as the crowd were bewitched.
As well as most of the album, the XX payed a superb version of Womack and Womack’s Teardrops, Sim warning that is was quite likely they would mess it up, although they didn’t. In fact they didn’t put a foot wrong all night, not a dropped note or an out of tune vocal. A sublime Shelter was another highlight, and the low bass during Fantasy shook the whole venue.
The XX went to the same school (Elliot School) as Hot Chip, Burial and Four Tet, and in keeping with those acts they are producing some of the most interesting music around at the moment. The crowd had come to see The XX perform an album that they had grown to love over the last six months, and they were not disappointed. I do wonder whether they would manage to hold a crowd’s attention with that pace a second time around, especially as their set grows in length, which it will have to - tonight they played for an hour. I personally feel they would benefit from extending the effective change of tempo and heavy sharp drumbeats during Night Time, which ended too soon, and applying it to a few more songs. Whether they will have to revert to a four-piece when they start to play longer sets or not remains to be seen, but for this tour at least, they are fully justifying the hype. 9/10
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