Live Review
Asylums
The Lexington, London
July 28 2016
Words/Photos: Jess Sharrock
The summer festival season is well and truly upon us, and Essex four-piece Asylums are no strangers to the stage following their recent Camden Rocks, BSTK Festival and Tramlines Festival performances, along with a raft of support slots.
Our Thursday evening was spent potentially in the best way, packed into The Lexington (one of the best small music venues in London) which has been an almost iconic home to so many wonderful up and coming bands, along with bigger well-known acts. Tonight it's Asylums who are strutting their stuff as headliners for the ‘Radio X Presents X-posure Live’ event hosted by John Kennedy.
It's the eve of their debut album release, 'Killer Brain Waves', so the boys could be forgiven if feeling somewhat emo. It's been a two-year journey to get to this point, taking in along the way the BBC Introducing Stage at Glastonbury in 2015, and the continued support of Radio 1, 6Music and of course John Kennedy, who has done much to champion the band over the last years.
Ready to show their eager fans just how much each of their songs and the new album meant to them, they set about demonstrating their catchy, fun and straight out of the 90s wares tonight. Often referred to as a more colourful version of The Horrors (possibly just because both being from Southend-on-Sea), but Asylums definitely brought the excitement, a whole lot of colour and their own indie spin to the evening. Their energy and unique sound left the crowd buzzing with enthusiasm over their live performance which was weird, hypnotic, yes, but also equally wonderful to watch.
Songs included the well-known ‘Missing Persons’, 'I‘ve Seen Your Face In A Music Magazine’ and 'Joy In A Small Wage’ which have all had significant radio play, along with new album material including ‘Bad Influence’, ‘Slacker Shoppers’ and ‘Born To Not Belong’. A nice touch during the set was a short rendition of ‘Raspberry Beret’ in tribute to the late Prince.
Asylums did an incredible job entertaining the crowd and definitely showed us all a great time. With a live set such as theirs, one can only imagine the rest of their upcoming festival appearances will leave the crowds as much satisfied and impressed as the always-hard-to-please London were this evening. But if you can’t catch them over the next few months, I’m sure they will be on the music scene for some time - they are here to stay.
I love this band (perhaps a little too much) and the album is an absolute treat, make sure you check it out!
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