The Xcerts + Paris Youth Foundation + Novacub @ Castle and Falcon, 11th April 2019
On arriving it was nice to see from the beginning there was a large audience already at the venue to welcome indie rock band Novacub who were first on stage. Fronted by Bloc Party drummer Louise Bartle and completed by fellow Bloc Party member and guitarist Russell Lissack, Iona Thomas (Bass) and Tony Alda (drums). Their catchy songs are mixed with a lot of emotions and feelings, particularly about losing love. Louise writes the songs for Novacub which is a ‘magical experience’ for her because she can fully express her emotions. Novacub sang their hearts out and connected with the crowd immediately. The crowd related to the music and were singing and dancing away to the energetic tracks.
They released their debut single ‘I still need it’ in January, which is about a failing relationship in Louise’s life, she went on to say that ‘there’s a mix of desperation and anger that still takes her back to that moment’. Their second single is released on 12 April titled ‘Wait up’, which, Louise states ‘is about one last attempt to save a relationship from its inevitable death’. It was highly acclaimed by everyone present that night so I definitely recommend listening to it.
Named after a graffiti spotted in a Parisian metro station, Paris Youth Foundation came on stage, starting out with ‘Look what you started’. Their uplifting and energising music had a major love theme. Their new EP ‘The nights are for thinking about you’, has just been released and contains most of the songs played by PYF at their last gig. It seemed to me, that their most enjoyed songs were ‘If you wanna’ and ‘London’. Lead singer Kev Potter showed his gratitude by thanking the audience for their presence after every song. They ended with ‘Losing your love’, which reminded me of Novacub’s breakup songs.
After a longer break to set up the equipment, the venue was filled with excited fans. The long awaited Aberdeen’s pop-rock trio finally came on stage The Xcerts. Their new album ‘Hold On To Your Heart’, released last year, “is about finding a pinhole of light in the dark and turning it into the sun”, as the band says, and it is “a bold, pure love letter to a bygone era inked by a sentimental hopeless romantic”.
Murray Macleod, the lead singer of The Xcerts, apologized before starting as he was suffering with a sore throat, despite mentioning this to us, it was unnoticeable during his performance as he screamed his way through the show! They opened with ‘Daydream’ a normal opener for them, following with the Springsteen-esque ‘Drive Me Wild’, and they actually drove everyone wild.
There are no words to describe how much the fans loved them tonight, the ecstatic fans sang along as loud as they could through the entire set. Singer Murray Macleod admitted he was overwhelmed and surprised by how the night was even better than when they played in London.
We were then treated to an acoustic solo from Murray as he played ‘Aberdeen 1987’, this carried many emotions amongst the fans present.
When the band left the stage, the crowd didn’t let them leave that easily, as they cheered and screamed for more. They came back and played three more songs, ending with their hit ‘Feels Like Falling In Love’, which is still stuck in my head.
Set list
Daydream
Drive Me Wild
We Are Gonna Live
Ready To Call
Show Me Beautiful
The Dark
Crazy
Slackerpop
You Mean Everything
Cry
Real Love
Hold On To Your Heart
Aberdeen 1987
Encore
There Is Only You
Shaking In The Water
Feels Like Falling In Love
Review and Photos: Andra Tudoran