Rolo Tomassi [Live]

Northern youngsters show London's hardcore scene how it's done... in a hipster bar.


Rolo Tomassi have had a great year. After making waves in 2008 with their debut EP and well-received first album, they've spent time on national tours with Ghost Of A Thousand, The Bronx & Fucked Up and have just jetted off to America to lay down their next record, the follow-up to last year's excellent Hysterics - but before that, they took time out to headline a low-key show at Brixton's trendy but stupidly-named venue 'The Rest Is Noise' for a storming set which showed exactly why they're worth the hype and praise the industry press have been heaping on them.

After some questionable indie/metal from newcomers Decimals, and a solid set from Holy Roar's hardcore staples Throats - whose thudding, heavy riffs kept the turnup-wearing hipsters who frequent Brixton's trendy parts strictly over by the bar - Eva, James, Joe, Edward & Joseph took to the tiny stage (which was only really a slightly-raised dancefloor) and effortlessly ripped through their unique brand of asynchronous, convulsing, progressive jazz-influenced math-hardcore with a much more confident and assured air than when I saw them last year. The result, with the small crowd thrashing along to every second and the band (not least Eva, their diminuitive banshee of a frontwoman, who was contorting and leaping as if she'd been taking lessons from Karen O) filling every inch of the venue with energy, was that the gig had the feel of a much larger event than what it was. Starting with traditional opener 'Oh, Hello Ghost' and ending with a fan-demanded encore of 'Curby' from their first EP, the band showed flawless delivery whether belting out popular favourites such as 'Abraxas', 'Fofteen' and 'Scabs' or tantalising the crowd with a couple of taster tracks from their yet-to-be-recorded second album. From the sound of it these new songs retain the band's style of relentless aural assaults mixed with beautified, melodic quiet sections and the audience lapped up every minute. After Joe climbed down from the speaker stack and the contented crowd shuffled off to find a night bus, I was left with the distinct impression that 2010 is going to be a very good year for Rolo Tomassi.