Sound of Rum at the Old Queen's Head

Sound of Rum at the Old Queen's Head

04 February, 2011
by: Trol23

To celebrate the launch of their new single, Slow Slow, the brilliant Sound of Rum have a 4 date residency at the Old Queen's Head in Islington. Tomas Olesen was there for the first one and is very smug about that.

What a very special night at the Old Queen's Head. A return to the stage, for a four week residency, of the searing talent that is Kate Tempest and the band she fronts - The Sound of Rum. Now with an album coming out on Sunday Best and a great team behind them, it looks like 2011 will finally be the year that hipsters can start to bang on about how much they preferred her old stuff.

Kate recently had surgery to remove nodules from her throat and had only flown in from her extended convalescence in Cambodia the night before the show. You can see the nervous energy in her and she later admits to having had butterflies about the gig all day. But before she could get on stage to work those nerves out there were support acts to get through.

Kwake is a drumming one man band who makes crunky music live, he's excellent and gets things off to a great start. Then Kate jumps up to introduce "a special guest, a massive influence, someone who...well I can't believe he even knows my name really...Chester P!". Chester P, of legendary North London rap crew Taskforce, duly takes to the mic in a slightly drunken manner. But then Chester P slightly boozy is still better than 95% of rappers and spoken word artists out there. He seems to have been a bit of an afterthought and is clearly winging it but he'll be there for the rest of the nights in this residency and just as Sound of Rum's show will be more and more polished as the series go on so too will his.

Sound of Rum come on to the stage to a roar from a room that is overwhelmingly in love with them. Before we can get going though they have to decide what to do first, Kate kicks it off with an acapella and a room listens entranced. When you watch Kate it's like watching someone in pain at times, in rapture at others. She grabs at herself, pulling at her t-shirt as though the words are burning their way out of her, just before they brand themselves onto your brain. 'Icarus' is demanded by the crowd and it's received with just as much gusto, it's by no means an easy tune to sing along to but it is anyway. When they play the new single Slow Slow it's to a very warm reception and sonically it's more polished and professional sounding than much of their other stuff. Whereas their previous work sounds like Kate spitting over a great soundtrack this sounds like a tune by Sound of Rum, like a product of unified song writing.

Kate's humbleness in spite of her towering talent is one of the nicest things about watching her perform. It's never 'them and us' with Sound of Rum, it's just 'us'. A fact borne out by the friendly banter between Kate and various hecklers that does nothing to diminish the show. In fact I find myself looking forward to her in between song banter almost as much as the tune that follows it. She's so sharp and witty I can't help but feel that stand up comedy lost a talent to music in this one.

I leave as Kate is retelling the story of Prometheus in the way only she can, and as I make my way home there's a tingle of excitement that accompanies me all the way. I'm reminded just how massive a talent Kate is and just how far she's come from teenage days of trying to blag the mic at Deal Real ciphers. That's not to say she wasn't clearly a serious prospect back then, far from it, she's always had a level of lyricism that far outpaced her peers. It's just that now, at 28 and with a head full of recent epiphanies to share with the world, she has a lot to say and a hunger for what she's doing that is palpable and infectious. She's no longer a potential next big thing, she IS a big thing. Sound of Rum will be playing Tuesday nights at the Old Queen's Head for the next three weeks with some fantastic guests and I can't recommend it enough, it's an absolutely essential ticket purchase.

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Trol23