The last time I mentioned Counter Culture (facebook) was just before their big launch night which can only be described as one huge slamming success with the venue’s two cavernous rooms seemingly full to capacity pretty early on. A little bit of free free booze and some cupcakes certainly did no harm in adding to the merry and anticipative crowd…
AHUMAN were the first band to take stage and were a chirpy, lively way to open things up with their soulful electro-pop. Next on were the energy packed Viva City with a keyboardist who could well have been Noel Fielding, but they managed to crank up the energy levels and get people dancing (and juggling and muching whole pineapples), letting everyone know the night was just getting started. Man Like Me were the last band of the evening, with their electro-pop wonders being joined by Suggs on stage, who was there to remember to some misspent time of his youth in one of the venues previous incarnations. That is a lot to live up to, and by all accounts this little pop-up venue seems to be making an impression.
Should I have written this up weeks ago? Well obviously yes but the real world got in the way. It has given the opportunity to write this looking back at Counter Culture’s first quarter of its short lifespan and pronounce just how well they are doing. Each night offers something different – I’ve heard great things about the comedy in particular, and who doesn’t love an underground screening of Withnail & I? But as a venue for that all important Friday session they have outdone themselves with the one and only Krafty Kuts last weekend and a post apocalyptic underground world in co-ordination with Oxjam coming up soon.
The litmus test for any venue is whether you want to go back as soon as you walk out the first time, and well I’m definitely trying to get back as soon as possible – and that urgency created from it being a pop-up means that I better do it soon.
Ou Est Le Swimming Pool – Dance The Way I feel (Armand Van Helden Mix Krafty Kuts Electro Re-lick) by Kraftykuts
VIVA CITY – the UK’s HOTTEST new electro rock band, are currently on their **Programmed to PARTY!** tour in the US, playing the massive CMJ music festival, the Viper Room Hollywood and Vegas!
Viva City have been compared in the UK + US press to The Prodigy, Depeche Mode and Pendulum, and hailed as ‘Sheer Genius’ by the legendary Tom Robinson. Having toured with him at the start of October, top BBC Radio 1 DJ KissySellOut said after the show: “Massively impressed by Viva City’s live performance. Best band I’ve seen in a while!” Praising their edgy, darkly hypnotic sound, David Sinclair, The Times said their music is: “As if the Prodigy suddenly discovered how to write good tunes”.
Tour dates:
• October 13: Viper Room, Los Angeles, CA
• October 16: The Bunkhouse, Las Vegas, NV
• October 19: CMJ @ Ace Of Clubs, New York City, NY
• October 23: CMJ at the Bowery Poetry Club, New York, NY
• October 25: Ottobar, Baltimore, MD
• October 26: Fontana’s, New York City, NY
• October 27: The Saint. Asbury Park, NJ
• October 28: ND at 501 Studios, Austin TX
• October 29: Meridian, Houston, TX
• October 30: Maxine’s, Hot Springs, AR.
More info is at http://www.myspace.com/VivaCityUK
Go enjoy!