On the last Thursday of February, Electric Ballroom in Camden turned into a temple of girl power for the night. As I walked into the venue to get ready for the opening Clutter, the PA was blasting a playlist full of iconic anthems. There was Pink with ‘Just Like A Pill’, there was Alanis Morissette and Meredith Brooks with ‘Bitch’. The tone was set perfectly for what was to come.
Swedish quartet Clutter – 20-year olds Hilda Ander, Emma French, Ove Jerndal, and Ville Scott – brought their wonderful brand of early 00s rock / grunge aesthetic to the Ballroom, coupled with endearing nonchalance you can only feel when you’re 20 and you’ve just gone on your first tour. The way they blend shoegaze, grunge and rock brought me right back to my teenage years, when I lived for a solid guitar shred and craved the wall of sound coming from the speakers. Clutter are back in London in April headlining The Lexington, so don’t miss them!
Clutter warmed the crowd perfectly. After a few absolute bangers during the interval between the bands (I *might* have been caught doing the full Spice Girls ‘Stop!’ dance routine and singalong with a friend, you will never know), you could start hearing audience members shout out ‘Viva Hinds!!’, eager to catch Ana Perrotte and Carlotta Cosies in action. We didn’t have to wait too long, and soon the opening notes of ‘Hi How Are You?’ from their fourth album (the aforementioned) Viva Hinds! rang out to rapturous applause.
Hinds have gone through a lot as a band. When their previous album The Prettiest Curse was released in 2020, nobody knew the world was about to change. All of a sudden their tour cancelled due to Covid 19, they got fired by their management and label, and lost two band members in one day – just to going into lockdown. That is a lot to handle for anyone, let alone an emerging band, but following the cliché that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, the Spanish guitar duo bounced back more resilient and with an even bigger DGAF attitude. And their energy is truly infectious – you can tell they are having a blast on stage, rarely staying in one place for more than is absolutely necessary. The moment they are not singing into the mic, they move to the middle of the stage and riff off one another, do a synchronised dance routine and even share a snog with their touring guitarist. And they do it with absolutely irresistible grins that could part the clouds on the gloomiest day.
As the tour poster says – this is Hinds FINALLY playing their new album around the world, and their set delivered the perfect balance of Viva Hinds as well as their back catalogue. Following the opener were ‘The Club’ and ‘New 4 You’ from their 2018 LP I Don’t Run, and the gorgeous lo-fi ‘Boom Boom Back’, originally recorded with the legend of lo-fi that is Beck himself, brought us back to Viva Hinds!. ‘Coffee’ hit the sweet spot with the crowd, who sang along to the list of all the not so guilty pleasures Ana and Carlotta enjoy (like “flowers from the boys I’m not sleeping with”).
My favourite moment came mid-set, when they announced an older song and defiantly pointed at the VIP balcony and dead-panned: “this is dedicated to our manager who told us not to include it in the set, so we now make a big point of it every time we play it” – and launched into ‘Just Like Kids (Miau)’. This is exactly the attitude that made them a staple on the UK indie scene – garage guitar sound, but with a punk attitude at heart.
‘Strangers’, originally recorded with Fontaine’s D.C.‘s frontman Grian Chatten, was another fan favourite, with guitar ripples showcasing how their sound is rooted in the the legendary Madrid new wave scene of the Eighties (Esplendor Géometrico comes to mind). The party was well and truly in full swing, when Hinds introduced a cover – Charli xcx‘s ‘Girl, so confusing’ and the room went absolutely wild. Hearing it arranged with sharp, staccato guitars rather than club beats made the message even more articulate – it truly is so confusing to be a girl, especially in the music industry.
‘Bon Voyage’ with the opening guitar tones bringing me right back to the best years of Britpop, slowed the tempo suggesting we were nearing the end of the night. However we couldn’t miss ‘Superstar’, one of their biggest singles from Viva. Before closing the night for good, ‘Castigadas en el Granero’ and ‘En Forma’ made a well deserved appearance, the latter becoming a huge group sing along and proving you don’t have to shy away from your mother tongue – we all sang along whether we understood each verse or not.
We thought we said our last goodbyes, but after being thunderously applauded – Ana and Carlotta returned changed into 90s tracksuits and jumped into the middle of the crowd, for an impromptu rave and some light acrobatics. Naturally.
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