Quick bit of Geography. For those of you not based in England, Hoxton is North London. Nearest tube is Old Street. In Hoxton you will find many glorious bars to drink at, to hear music and to see the trendiest, calmest, friendliest and sometimes craziest of people outside of Camden. Don’t be put off by the outward appearance of some venues - its what’s inside that counts, and in many cases the inside has the sound systems, the swanky bars (I’m bringing it back) and the entertainment, colour and mood that many London bars lack. For one, it doesn’t feel intimidating to enter. None of these “shoes/suits/look like you’re a businessman with no sense of individual fashion outside of cufflinks” regulations that we all so love. Simply go as you are… well you should probably wear some clothes but you get the point.

Last night (27/8/08), I checked out The Hoxton Bar and Grill. Friends of mine, The Clik Clik, were headlining an evening and from what you’ll hear on their page, their iTunes or in their live shows, its pretty catchy stuff. They’ve gotten rave reviews from Hadouken! (who actually took them on their national tour), Alphabeat (again, another national tour as a result) and Zane Lowe of Radio 1 (who is one of the most bad ass Radio DJs known to man) and this was their second show since returning from a two week residency at the Ibiza Rocks Hotel.

We arrived early (around 8.30 or so) and immediately got caught in the happy energy of after-work drinks from a nice variety of people. Settling with a Kirin (and fighting away the urge for Sushi) we began to soak in the atmosphere as the bands finished up soundchecking, before ushering ourselves past the queues and into the performance room around the back. Two large daunting doors, thick enough to suppress the sound, blocked any noise from leaving and the floor was already packed - complete thick with it. The site says a 400 capacity crowd space but it was just a sea of hairstyles and barely moveable. Not my favourite time but great to see unsigned acts drawing a good crowd.

The openers were a sort of 80s style electro pop act called Milke who were a great energy and gave me the occassional vibe of secretly filming a porno to some of the pulsating choonage (not me personally, but the amount of cameras there you never know HOW the afterparty went down). I can’t remember specifically how each or any of the songs went, just that I enjoyed their show and bounced a fair bit throughout (whenever I wasn’t spilling my pint and pissing off those around me).

They were followed on by a guy called Dan Black, who has been given the priveledge of Zane Lowe’s single of the week, due to his cover of Notorious B.I.G’s Hypnotize (go to the page and give it a listen/watch the video). Now the first impression of Dan is that he looks like a mixture of Freddie Mercury, Mika, Mark Ronson and the frontman from The Killers, all wrapped up in some -too tight to breathe- jeans. He had a band with him - a guy with live cymbals and electronic pads + laptop, a guy on a keyboard (and then bass) who really reminded me of one of the band members in the film Almost Famous, but who played seriously great riffs, and another on keyboard and trigger samples. All four sung harmonies together with Dan taking lead. Dan himself was either vocals/dancing or on his guitar and from the get go, the mood lifted into a more party-electro-pop vibe.

The whole band’s bodylanguage was that of a constant flirt, both with the audience and amongst themselves. The rhythms were subtle, yet strong and it built in momentum throughout. They moved from song to song so swiftly that by the time Hypnotize was on, the only thought in my head was how similar the drums sounded to Umbrella (which scarily enough, it actually uses). This is one of the better covers I’ve heard this year. You wouldn’t even realise what song it was til the chorus, and even then it only sounds like he’s borrowing aspects of lyrics til the second verse kicks in and it becomes apparent that this is actually an epic recreation of a classic track. Definitely worth checking him out at somepoint, though I couldn’t find any songs on iTunes, he did say that he is planning to get a 7inch out sometime soon, but I think he just wanted in my pants.

And so we conclude with The Clik Clik. Vibrant energy, happy smiles, and tonnes of youth to spare sees this four piece from Saf Landan bringing the indie-grime-pop-rock prowess to a much wider stage than Madame Jojos could ever imagine. They break straight into the set with Can’t Take You Anywhere, the band’s first B-side (to My Dunks, the song Zane Lowe played). The realistic and essentially raw lyrics of “whenever you get drunk, you are an idiot”, and “you’re immature and hard to bear, I can’t take you anywhere”, we’re given a glimpse into how frontman Stefan is sometimes regarded. I think I read or watched (youtube is an excess of information that is easily consumed and forgotten) an interview where Stefan said he had written the song as a response to how he was viewed by friends when drinking irresponsibly. Its not preachy, just direct and to the point.

The follow up is their 2nd single (and the video can be found on their YouTube page) Did You Wrong. Simple story - boy and girl are friends. Boy ‘fucks up’. Boy apologises. Girl forgives. Boy repeats. Boy tells girl to stop forgiving. Boy and girl celebrate that their friendship is important/good enough that even though he fucks up, she always forgives (and probably vice versa). “Now how can I ever answer you, if forgiving me is all you do?” This is probably one of my favourite songs of theirs. The rest of the set order is a bit of a blur but included Girlfriends, Little L, This is Life, a new song who’s name I keep forgetting but is a bit of a grower, Went to a Party (but I was feeling sober, so I couldn’t move) and still omited to include My Dunks. Good times though. The cowbell on Girlfriends is more than reason to attend a show, let alone the chance of hearing someone fit hyperchondriac-a-something-or-other into a sentence without sounding ridiculous.