Everything Everything

Nokia Lumia Live Session
The Chain Store, London
October 1st, 2013

by Sarah Courtauld

So, if you haven’t been to the Chain Store, (and really, why would you, it’s a long wander through a concrete no man’s land, deep in the Docklands), then go. Find it! The last lighthouse in London, it looks out across the river to the twinkly lights of Canary Wharf, and was an atmospheric venue for the Nokia Lumia Sessions, where the Macunian four piece Everything Everything got a crowd of unfeasibly beautiful people and some middle aged Nokia executives to jump about.

The set was full of great, danceable numbers, from Cough Cough to Kemosabe, and the utterly brilliant Don’t Try. Frontman Jonathan Higgs strutted about, sweated, and stormed his way through the set. At one minute he went a bit Bowie, the next he seemed to have nicked a bit of Thom Yorke. And if it felt a bit like they had stolen loads of musical influences, and then melded them together – it sounded like that, in a really, really fun way.

But there was something about the whole thing that felt… a tiny bit wrong. And when Jonathan Higgs walked into the crowd at the end, to deliver one final, sweet, beautiful song, it really became clear. Everyone was standing around, rapt. Actually, no. Were they? Not really. A lot of people were standing around, recording the intimate, live, unique experience on their mobiles.

It was just a little unfortunate that the whole point of the gig was to flog the All New! It records at night! Nokia, and to promote something about live music that is just shit – That instead of actually just being there, experiencing it, a lot of the audience were filming it on their mobiles. Experiencing it second hand. And what’s wrong with that? I don’t know. Everything?

The Lumia Live Sessions is a tour that sees Nokia and music pioneers La Blogotheque team up to showcase hot new UK music talent at a series of free gigs in unusual settings across the UK.