Gig Review: UGLY Live at Moth Club

With the dawn of the new year comes new acts to get excited about! In the painfully slow run up to festival season, Wide Awake, a South London day festival at Brockwell Park, were looking for an early excuse for a party at Hackney’s finest Moth Club.

The lineup of bands at first glance read like an eye witness testimony for a break-in down the road at your unlucky neighbour’s terraced house. “It was the burglar! He had a pencil! And he was UGLY.”

Burglar, hailing from Dublin, delivered the grunge-inspired goods, with their latest single No Easy Way Out showcasing moody, existential dilemmas. Main support Pencil put it better than anyone that “this country’s going to the dogs”, in an emphatic, rousing performance.

But holy mama, UGLY were worth waiting for. After seeing them open for Brighton-based Lime Garden last year, it was clear that something was stirring in anticipation for their break through. Tonight’s set left nothing to spare and quite simply ate.

Showcasing tracks from their EP with its gorgeously designed tapestry of influences, ranging from folk to art rock, the group breezed through an excellently crafted set.

Introspective, poignant and matter-of-factness, balanced with an enduring hope for the future, UGLY are the latest band to be excited about, and they are clearly not shying away from the potential platform for good. Lead singer Jasmine wore a No Music On a Dead Planet T-shirt, which she prostrated and defiantly pointed to draw attention to the reality in the air.

Stand out track of the night brought the moody irreverence with Icy Windy Sky, a repetition heavy, song circle round-building, harmony laden MASTERPIECE. The vocalists all blend seamlessly in their harmonies, as they crescendo in and out of the highs and lows of their collective experiences.

There’s this knack to command their crowd without deflating them too hard, with many an artist having the tendency to pile on the doom and gloom of the world. Sure, our planet is burning to the ground, and the benefactors of this are conveniently nowhere to be seen, but UGLY seem to be holding on to the last whistle of hope. By banding together and stripping back to their highly evocative vocals, they wouldn’t look a pixel out of place as Homer’s barbershop quartet.

The jangly guitars, nonchalant “I’m not known to survive/ on the gristle of others to keep me alive”, heard on their unsettling track I’m Happy You’re Here, is an enduring example of their duplicitous and downright chaotic blend of sounds. Hearing Sha again brought back the piquing of interest for this band. To sing “Nam-myoho-renge-kyo” without having any clue what it means spells something magic for this Cambridge borne band.

If you’re heading to Wide Awake on the 23rd May, stop by these guys and experience the excitement for yourself! They’re are going to be big.