Lemonade Shoelace Gig Review

WITH DJ TIME OF THE MONTH, ULDAH AND SON ZEPT

Walking into Black Box for the first ever Lemonade Shoelace gig, organised by Table It, did not fail to show off some talented musicians and DJ’s. Preforming an arrangement that showed the versatility of music, and how that experience can go further.

To warm up the room DJ Time of the Month opens the set for the evening in Blackbox. Although I have never experienced a DJ Time of the Month set you can still interact with the set throughout. Drawing upon on point trends and use of pop culture references the crowd feels at ease with the experience. Not to mention the remix of Bezos from Bo Burnham’s special “INSIDE” had the crowd in a mixture of laughter, shock and living for it. An unexpected but welcomed surprise to say the least.

DJ Time of the Month is capturing sparkling on the decks with her powerful sound that filled out the room before the room filled itself. Still adhering to the restrictions on Covid-19 protocol was a challenge from the offset from this line-up. Admittedly DJ Time of the Month is correct in her tagline saying “if it don’t make you dance, I won’t play it”, the crowd was ready to get out of our seats and onto the floor with every track. DJ Time of the Month did not fail to set the tone for the night with a bombshell opening!

Uldah beats follows, the artist known as Joel Harkin takes to Blackbox to present his beat-based set, a big step away from his modern folk sets. Uldah starts with this all-encompassing sound and manages to bring this sound in slowly coming from every corner of the room. His use of voice snippets keeps the crowd’s attention as he develops and loops his sound. This is more impressive when watching Uldah, with a simple set up of a track pad, Uldah achieves so much with so little.

For the first time ever, Lemonade Shoelace presents an echoing haunting sound. The sound encapsulates the feeling of listening within an orb, all consuming. With his signature look of clout goggles and a bucket hat, the lead singer Ruarí Richman has a capturing essence to his watchers. The band was timed to a T and alleviated the elongated sound of Ruarí with a smooth bass pumping rhythm from Pete Close. The crowd are brought through an electronic maverick. We have been taken on an outer space journey with Autopilot Paradise, the track that just won Lemonade Shoelace the “Vans Musicians Wanted” competition.

Lemonade Shoelace seems to capture the beauty of his sound within the concepts of youthful pain and anguish, taking in the dramatics of young life. Somehow Lemonade Shoelace has his audience within a nexus, with the audience at his fingertips constantly but in suspense before every word. His lyrics “we wanna go” professes the energy of the crowd coming to this set, with the strong instrumental breaks highlighting the talent of the Lemonade Shoelace crew, professing the individuality of every single player.

Lemonade Shoelace may just be at the beginning but has a strong determined sound, with clear focus and direction there is no telling how far Lemonade Shoelace could go!

To top the evening, Son Zept entered the gig with his electronic set of distorted ambient techno. With visuals to match of nature immersion, complied videos and wavy backdrop, he brought the music to a new level experience. Leaving the audience in a trance of a gig that is hard to forget. Son Zept presented an experience beyond music!