 |
| Photos taken by Dan Korkelia www.dankorkelia.com |
Last night at The Borderline this cutesy but cool parisian trio warmed London's hearts with a sell-out show to make everyone smile. Their kooky sound - think of a ukelele accompaniment to a light hearted game of ping-pong - leaves you smiling from eyelashes to toenails. There really is no escape from the happy-go-lucky, carefree vibe they pour into the room. I emerged from the club afterwards in the centre of London feeling like I'd just been led to the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow by a unicorn playing a ukelele, but not in a trippy way...
Am I making any sense at all? Its surprisingly difficult to describe We Were Evergreen without underselling or sounding like a flower fairy. This band is like no other I've ever come across.
Lets establish the basics. There are three lovely parisians on the stage surrounded by a variety of fun looking instruments to play with. A girl in an impossibly cool and understated outfit stands to the right, playing a xylophone and glockenspiel and singing lovely harmonies. She beams from ear to ear, exuding pure glee to be on stage. With pixie cuteness she makes you want to get up on stage and join in, until you realise this may ruin the vibe somewhat and that its probably best to leave it to this talented trio.
On the left is a slightly edgy guy, a genius with a loop pedal. He builds the backbone of the music with dextrous use of an array of, often overlooked, percussion instruments, not to mention the occasional foray into beat-boxing. He follows this by playing the bass, ukelele and guitar and jumping in on vocals. This man is a musician from head to toe so he'll pick up any instrument he finds and churn out a catchy riff or bass-line, he's no front man, he forms the entire skeleton of the band.
Meanwhile the fantastic front man with a cheeky grin leads the band through their set singing about trees, children, penguins and memories. He leads the vocals, plays the ukelele and the guitar and keeps on smiling the most genuine smile I've ever seen.
What is great about We Were Evergreen is they don't stop at just plain cute, they push their songs further into the realms of electro to give these catchy hooks a bit of a kick to keep you dancing, and they do incredibly well without a drum kit per se. Their innovative use of percussion is possibly my favourite thing about them, no cow-bell is spared to give a variety of sounds and beats.
If one thing is certain, this band are genuinely thrilled to be performing, and their music is as cheery and light-hearted as they are. They'll instantly put you in a good mood and will have you smiling all day.
The only thing left to do is stalk them on youtube and spotify....I've given you a head start see the links below and I urge you to absolutely go and see We Were Evergreen live if they are performing within a million miles of your home...
My favourite version of my favourite song...
Another lovely song...
And their spotify page:
We Were Evergreen
Enjoy...
