SoKo Live @ 100 Club, London 26/03/2015
March 27, 2015
SoKo closed her European Tour promoting her new album My Dreams Dictate My Reality, at the iconic 100 Club in London yesterday. She opened the show with a song of the same name, and played 12 other new songs throughout the gig. Her last release - which is probably her most mature and accomplished work yet - features rather obvious post-punk and new-wave influences, with a pretty similar sound to The Cure's.
On stage, SoKo embodies quite well the attitude of a punk rocker, jumping around like a maniac and dancing in Ian Curtis style. The Not SoKute singer is definitely far from that era, and that might be the reason why she won't perform any song from the 2007 EP. However, she did go back to a few old compostions now and then, and demonstrated her multiple talents while playing Destruction Of The Disgusting Ugly Hate on the synth, I just Want To Make It New With You on the bass, and For Marlon on the guitar.
Halfway through the gig, SoKo got a member of the crowd on stage to say a poem: "Roses are red, violets are blue, vodka costs less than dinner for two" is what the fan came up with to introduce SoKo's new song Bad Poetry. The gig reached it's peak of punkness when the singer invited another fan on stage and undressed him, before encouraging all the women in the crowd to get rid of their tops and bras. She performed I Thought I Was An Alien topless, surrounded by many other pairs of tits who took over the stage.
The madness went on, as SoKo crowd surfed around the venue during Who Wears The Pants?? She finished her set with the very nostlagic First Love Never Die, before coming back for an encore starting with Nervous Breakdown, which she performed solo on the drums. SoKo then performed Keaton's Song - the last song of My Dreams Dictate My Reality - which is a melancholic composition about fellow musician Keaton Henson.
The atmosphere was now quite chilled out, and the gig was closed with the pretty mellow We Might Be Dead By Tomorrow, which was featured in the viral First Kiss short film. The once 'folk' singer has come a long way since she has swapped her acoustic guitar for a synth, and delivered one of the punkest show of the decade. SoKo surely did justice to 100 Club before flying back to the US.
3 questions for SoKo
- Is there a kind of music you listen to that nobody would suspect?
"I think my tastes are pretty obvious… I listen to a lot of shoegaze, post-punk, new-wave… I don't know, I'm pretty straight forward in my tastes."
- Do you plan to write music in French?
"Not Really. But there's a poem in French in the song Bad Poetry on my album, that's as far as I go… I write for other people in French sometimes, but it's just not for me. I feel like I express my emotions way better in English, because I live everything that is important in my life in English."
- What was your best memory of duet or collaboration?
"It's always fun to collaborate with Ariel (Pink), and Thom (Semence) was great too… Last night Klara from First Aid Kit came to sing with us in Manchester, and last week in Paris Christophe came on stage and sang with us… We always have surprise guests coming, it's so fun all the time, but my favourite collaboration is being on stage every night with my band."
Tracklist:
1. My Dreams Dictate My Reality
3. Destruction Of The Disgusting Ugly Hate
5. I Just Want To Make It New With You
Encore:
20. We Might Be Dead By Tomorrow
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