Klaxons Make Live London Comeback

Alton Towers’ Nemesis; flushing restrooms at Glastonbury; tins of peaches during nuclear apocalypse aftermaths – some things in life are worth queuing for.

Half-an-hour in the flesh-biting cold and wet is always good to build anticipation. And while normally I’d start machine gunning texts out in a vain attempt to secure some kind of last minute blag to a gig such as Klaxons‘ return to the London live scene at Soho’s Madame Jojo’s club last night (February 3), I didn’t mind a bit of wall hugging to secure entry to the hottest ticket of the year so far.

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Klaxons at Madame Jojo’s, pic: Richard Johnson

(Former) Dirty Pretty Things’ Anthony Rossomando; Ox.Eagle.Lion.Man’s Frederick Blood-Royale – the queue was stuffed full of the kind of faces you might recognise if you read NME once a month. Mark Ronson was there too. Don’t think he queued.

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The Great British Queue

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And so, at around 10pm, Klaxons clambered onto a London stage for the first time since… “Ooh, it was Brixton in 2006, wasn’t it?”, as Jamie “party Klaxon” Reynolds told me earlier in the evening (actually, it was the NME Big Gig in February 2008 mate!). He also said he was bricking it – a state of mind possibly exasperated by the fact that he wore an enormous tutu for the show.

The band employed a “one on, one off” set-list policy, interspersing newies with cuts from 2007’s Mercury award-winning debut debut ‘Myths Of The Near Future’.

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The setlist. eBay potential, anyone?

So, were they any good? The first two newies, ‘Moonhead’ and ‘Imaginary Pleasures’, sound very promising – the samples have been ditched and Klaxons sound like a bulky rock band stuffed with melody and vigour. You can hear why they’re keen to ditch the new rave tag.

It’s too early to judge, of course – the band aren’t tour-tight and the gig should be viewed as more of a live rehearsal rather than a paid-up gig. But the lawnmower-haired kids didn’t seem to mind, the band were received like returning war heroes – although I’m not sure what the forces would make of Simon Taylor‘s blue shorts’n’tights combo.

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Outside the venue after the show. Spot the back of a Klaxons’ head

A tentatively promising return, then. New London club shows set to be announced in the coming weeks – you know where to find out about ’em.

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