Live Review: China Bears - Oslo Hackney, London 10/10/2024
Oslo Hackney this week played host to Sasha Assad, Jim Lockey and the Solemn Sun and China Bears with the kind of small gig intensity that you go to discover the hottest new music before they make it big. The kind of place where you can find £5 pints in London – where you’d be lucky to get them cheaper than £6 these days. But when the gig got underway we were quickly treated to a delight of a spectacle from not one but three incredibly talented artists. China Bears have been compared to The National and Death Cab for Cutie and a few tracks into their set – it’s easy to see why.
Support from Sasha Assad, half-Egyptian, half-Nottingham indie artist drew from her influences. I’m a big fan – dreamy, lyrically, emerging right before she’s due to explode. Bad Nature feels raw, embracing a darker side to the indie scene, as does my favourite of her tracks – Imagine Mary, also their newest - instantly earning Pretenders and Breeders comparisons – but also, Kings of Leon? It’s easy to see why – commanding and confident taking risks on stage. Assad was my favourite of the support acts here – and possibly one of my favourite new discoveries of the gigging season so far – but that’s not to talk down Jim Lockey and the Solemn Sun, who followed suit; excellent in their short space of time – a more established band running through their discography; playing plenty of highlights from last year’s album, Colour, which included, for me – Medicine, which feels like a real outburst of euphoria and an instant crowd pleaser for those coming to see China Bears (“when did I start leading your life away? Tell me that I’m wrong” soars). It’s poppier than their first two albums and it’s a band coming back to the front that still has plenty to say. If there’s any justice in discovering new acts, you’ll see Assad on the festival circuit as an opener next year. End of the Road, perhaps?
Starting sharply at 9:15 – there was no messing about for a fifty-minute set as all three artists stuck to time, China Bears got going with the kind of speed of band known for their reliability. They’re an anthem band built for crowd-pleasers with a heart of gold that’s worn on their sleeve, and starting with Total Communication Breakdown, it’s easy to fall in love with their lyrics. “I’m all alone and I don’t want anyone else” asks for a plea to listen; about feeling alone in a crowd– a downer to start but it isn’t long before Gracie comes in – a role reversal; which frontman Ivan Proctor talks about his friends and those closer to him. The band hails from Somerset originally starting with Ivan and Frazer, twin brothers, Frazer on lead guitar duties, before James and Dean were recruited at university in Guildford. It’s easy to see this band going down the route of Snow Patrol as John Kennedy on Radio X put it – they’re an anthem-y stadium band in the making that has the potential to provoke plenty of thought and deeper meaning behind their crowd-pleasing lyrics.
Participation Trophy is a romantic melodrama of an album – all members of the band upping their consistency gained from a lengthy tour showing their perfect synchronisation and harmony, able to balance the quieter songs with their earlier work. My favourite two tracks were both played here: North Star and Easy Kill, the latter towards the end and one of the poppier, “if all your love is inside of someone else, you’re like me, you’re an easy kill… oh let’s be easy kills” whirls the chorus, capturing the audiences’ imagination as Ivan encourages them to sing along if they know the words. Both are fan-favourites and not unique choices: It’s easy to see why North Star is there. The song is one of relationships – instantly relatable to anyone who’s ever been in one, fitting with the upswing a romantic album of course; and it draws the audience in at Oslo (“this is a good one”, a punter next to me says to his friend); a venue breaking out in Hackney beyond its proximity to the Overground Line and status as a former railway station as a reputation for emerging new talent – Bolis Pupil plays here in November. Ivan pours all these emotions into North Star that makes him instantly likeable as a frontman – balancing love, hope, grief – all the stages – in a record that tugs at the audience in a bid for authenticity that succeeds completely.
Words by Miles Milton-Jefferies
