Ithaca – Live @ The Old Blue Last, London 25/01/2016
There is a sense of home when I step into a small music venue, maybe it's the smell of bodily fluids and a toilet that doesn't flush that does it. But it is in these small venues you see music at it's purest, with bands pushing their material to such extremes to try and seduce those few people there in the hope they might buy some merchandise or even come to their next show! It's a cold Monday night
and I'm at the Old Blue Last on Great Eastern Street, where I am here to see a band called Ithaca, a hardcore five piece from South London who are causing a bit of a stir.
I've seem them play a few times now and with each time I do their set becomes more forceful as their sound hits you. You can almost feel your heart being ripped out of your chest as Djamila roars at you through a microphone. She controls that stage in an almost militant state of mind, commanding that you pay attention. Her troops, Sam Jones and Will Sweet are on guitars, attacking you with their riffs like two men possessed. With Drew Haycock on bass and James Lewis on drums, this combination is deadly!
Ithaca's new EP Tresspassers was released a few months ago, which is equally as much of a beast as the band are. The first track 'Otherwordly' acts as an opening statement for a job interview, making you pause for a split second in response and go:
"Fuck....!".
The EP is four tracks that smash into you from the start and doesn't loosen its grip until Ithaca say so.
