March 16, 2007 0:45

Hit By Sticks strip down at London gig

Band perform rare acoustic show in Shoreditch

London veterans Hit By Sticks played a rare acoustic show in Shoreditch tonight (March 14).

Playing with just two guitarists, rather than their full compliment of seven, the band performed stripped-down versions of their songs at the Party Like The Wolf night at London’s Juno Bar.

“This is not our normal set,” frontman Joe Frost feebly excused himself to the tastemaker heavy crowd.

He then viciously attacked the fanzine Loud And Quiet, who were hosting the night, cruelly sending them-up as a 'Nathan Barley'-style satirical creation.

“We just agreed to do this for Trashbat,” declared Frost, who was in vitriolic form,confronting the audience with his emo-fuelled tunes, including the likes of 'Apple' and the 'Daily Mail'-baiting 'Stay On The Drugs'.

“I know this night is called Party Like The Wolf, but this is fucking miserable,” Frost later told the crowd in a Pete Wentz-esque onstage rant. “If we had the others with us it would be a lot more upbeat!”

However as their set wore on, Hit By Sticks were supplemented by a strange piece of performance art.

Introducing a conceptualist dancer simply known as Wan-On for last song ’Say It Isn’t So’, the performer's minimalist moves left parts of the crowd visibly confused and upset, while other sections of the audience screamed for more like the baying mob at an illegal cockfight.

Hit By Sticks played:

’Mimosa’
‘Picture Albums’
‘February Sun’
‘Stay On The Drugs’
‘Apple’
‘Say It Isn’t So’

The band play again at Storm in London’s Leicester Square in April 20. See Hitbysticks.com for more information.