HEADBOY ARE PLAYFUL AND INTIMATE IN EAST LONDON HEADLINE

LIVE REVIEW | headboy – THE SHACKELWELL ARMS, LONDON 12/11/24 by Morris Shamah

headboy (all lowercase!) is Oli Birbeck (drums), Mars West (guitar, bass, vocals), and Jess Collins (bass, guitar, vocals), and they are an indie, post-punk trio from North London. You’ll catch them opening for your favourite band at the Lexington or the Windmill or The Old Blue Last and you’ll find yourself with a new favourite band, and wonder why in the hell aren’t they headlining? For those of us who’ve been clamoring for a proper headboy gig, it’s been too long.

Opening for our favourite opener this evening is LOLA (all caps!). LOLA plays acoustic guitar and ukelele, sings primarily in German, and is accompanied by a single clarinet player. The crowd is pin-drop silent, respectful and attentive. LOLA’s music isn’t demanding, it’s easy on the ears and bathes you in comfort, but it does demand your attention, at least, and the early comers are happy to grant it the space it needs.

By the time headboy take the stage in the back room of The Shacklewell Arms, everyone is sweating. The heating is on, the place is full, and the combination has everyone shedding layers. This is London in November, but for the 65 of us in the backroom of the legendary pub in Dalston, it’s a rare chance to see one of our favourite bands play a headline show.

headboy open as they always do, with a short jam they call “Cattle Rustle,“ before breaking into “Reservoir,” which comes from their excellent 2023 EP Was It What You Thought?. “Reservoir“ is then followed by three unreleased tracks in a row. Each of these is better than the last, all three of them smart, playful tracks that we can only hope to hear in studio form one day and properly digest. One of them – I believe it was “Zeros“ – was debuted for the first time at this show, and is potentially the best and most energetic headboy song yet. Better even than “loyl”, which was up next. “loyl” was released only 5 days prior and is the reason for this rare headline. We’ve reviewed “loyl” in depth here, and hearing it live for the first time after listening to the recording, it struck me how playful West and Collins can be with the melodies and riffs. The song is undoubtedly “loyl,” anchored in large part by Birbicks perfect drumming, but the leads will deviate ever so slightly from the composition. It’s fun, it’s unique, and it’s why we see live music.

“Cement” into “Jackal Lake” followed. This pairing is a headboy live staple and the second half of Was It What You Thought?. During the dissonant transition after “Cement,” Collins and West touch foreheads and then trade instruments. West can’t keep a smile off their face while Collins is scrunched up in contemplation.  It’s a beautiful moment, uniquely headboy. Then, with West now on bass and Collins on guitar, the trio continues playing “Jackal Lake.” It’s remarkable how distinct each of their styles is – despite having changed instruments and stage locations, you can really tell West’s plucky, fingered playing from Collin’s melodic groove.

Headboy continue with “Goat Studios“, which is unreleased, but known by the faithful as “the one where Mars sits down and Jess gets deep with their lyrics”, and then “Bees,” also unreleased. This section was a stark contrast to the earlier unreleased songs section – where the first trio of new-to-us songs were upbeat and fun, these two are slow, contemplative, and heavy.

Closing out the set is the very welcome return of two of headboy’s first singles, “Toothrot” and “Televised.” They’ve been absent from headboy sets for a while, but the crowd clearly hadn’t forgotten them. Both songs are as close to rave-ups as headboy gets, and made for a fitting close to a wonderful night where headboy is finally in charge.

Prompted by a fan, the trio encored with a partial rendition of “Alligator,” the last of the early singles to get played. Headboy warned us that they didn’t exactly remember the song, but that’s no object – they just played as much as they could and went straight into their nursery-rhyme-turned-sing-along, “Runaway,” to send us back into the cold outside.

Setlist

1. Cattle Rustle*
2. Reservoir
3. Wildest Day*
4. Zeros*
5. Curtsy*
6. loyl
7. Cement >
8. Jackal Lake
9. Goat Studios*
10. Bees*
11. Toothrot
12. Televised
    Encore
13. Alligator^ >
14. Runaway*

* unreleased
^partial

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