Fluorescent Hearts live in Hong Kong

18-05-13

Wooooohoooo with a capital “W”! What a breathtaking night this was. Bisous & its stage was the perfect setting for the music that unfolded before us. Laura Kenny was a star trooper and played a set (albeit a shorter one) despite illness, the Teenage Girls were quite frankly being ‘teenage girls’ (I’m sure they got some new fans that night) and our lovely guests from Britain, Fluorescent Hearts charmed the audience and played their debut Asian gig with passion and emotion. Thanks to The Underground team! Thanks to Ashleigh & Bisous! Here’s to more shows at Bisous!
love Chris B x

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Laura Kenny

1. Drive
2. Another Page
3. First Cut is the Deepest (Cat Stevens Cover)

Laura Kenny was a trooper Saturday night. She warmed up the stage with a charismatic and down-to-earth performance, fittingly singing the lyrics “I’ll just go on and drive”. Despite having been sick for a couple of days, the singer-songwriter (accompanied briefly by Danielle Vita on the violin) powered through to give us some nicely blended folk tunes and stellar vocals, high notes and all.

Not only did she offer us a beautifully crisp and clear sound but she also easily managed to dissolve the barrier between stage and audience with a charming sense of humour.

– Natalia Bodomo

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Teenage Girls

1. Johnston
2. Red Rover
3. Cancer
4. Morning News
5. Comet
6. Stay Forever
7. Jamie

Next up were Teenage Girls who brought it with a blast of energy. Their brash, no-nonsense sound clearly resonated with the crowd who were quickly enamoured and picked up on the energetic vibes. The band played awesome Lo-fi indie music with alluring guitar riffs, mighty drumbeats and catchy melodies with a type of unmistakeable rebellious passion.

Red Rover, their second song in the set, was a catchy tune. It was one of my favourites and was admittedly stuck in my head long after the show. Another standout was the band’s performance of Cancer, a more ‘intense’ song in the words of lead singer Elaine. It had a beautifully intricate melody, though I wish I could have heard the lyrics under all that lo-fi.

Still, all three band members (Elaine, Cal and Bren) worked superbly well together to give us fun music with a raw carefree attitude. They managed to appeal to everyone’s inner teenager, coaxing a little dancing out of a tentative audience.

They gave us noise. They gave us raw energy. They gave us fantastic music!

– Natalia Bodomo

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Fluorescent Hearts

1. Gasoline
2. Give Me Your Love
3. Guide You Home
4. Anthem of the Heart
5. To The Moon And Back (Savage Garden Cover)
6. Where I Belong
7. Butterfly
8. Tell Her You Love Her
+ 2 encore Performances

Midway through the set, lead singer Chris introduced the band as “Four simpletons from Glasgow, Scotland”. But far from simple, Fluorescent Hearts absolutely DELIVERED for their first ever Asian show at Bisous, Hong Kong. In the moments leading up to the show, a buzzing audience were keen for them to take the stage. As soon as they did, the crowd was fully engaged and the band’s brilliant onstage energy electrified the room.

Fluorescent Hearts’ sound is a captivating brand of pop rock that’s powerful, passion-filled and cathartic. The first bars of their opening song Gasoline reminded me of the soundtrack intro to an epic scene in a movie, which is fitting seeing as the band does a fantastic job of building up momentum in their songs and taking the audience on a journey.

My two personal favourite performances were Guide You Home, which had a rocking mix of momentum, rhythm and drama, and Butterfly, a more delicate blend of guitar riffs, a milder drumbeat and an absolutely infectious vocal melody. In this latter song, Chris made excellent use of his vocal range.

It wasn’t difficult to sense the utter enthusiasm of drummer Gary who seemed to be playing wholeheartedly with his entire being making someone in the crowd yell out “Who’s the drummer? He’s awesome!!!”

In fact, what’s for sure is that the members of Fluorescent Hearts put their all into the show. The excitement of being on stage and perhaps playing in Asia for the first time was obvious. It had the energetic bassist Andy bounding around the stage as he delivered solid bass lines, and had guitarist Martyn fully immersed in his playing. Frontman Chris had great stage presence and took the time to make the crowd laugh with a sarcastic sense of humour.

With chants of “One more song!” later pushing to “Five more songs!”, The crowd were able to squeeze two encore performances out of the band. They obviously couldn’t get enough!

– Natalia Bodomo

poster by ANGUS LEUNG
photos © Copyright 2013 by ANGUS LEUNG

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