Heavy Lungs, Treeboy & Arc & Roxy Girls get Hello 2020 off to a rowdy start

Every January, DIY descends upon East London’s Old Blue Last for a four-week series of gigs designed to turn off the telly, get us off the sofa, and thrust us right back into live music’s sweet embrace. And because it’s the new year, we feel it only right to celebrate the very best of new music, by showcasing an array of the bands we’re most excited to watch for the next twelve months.

And, just as the doctor ordered, the first night of Hello 2020 is set to be a chaotic affair. From the off, upstairs is packed out, with New Year revellers desperate to get a fix of new music.

Kicking off the evening are Sunderland’s own Roxy Girls. A quartet who are sure to become darlings of BBC 6 Music very soon, they’re an enticing project from the off. Their brand of post-punk comes littered with jarring changes in time signature, guitar squalls and intricate drum licks, all propelled by frontman Tom Hawick’s distinctive northern drawl. Almost as if Parquet Courts and The Futureheads got together and jammed to see what might happen, Roxy Girls spend their set teetering on the edge, almost as if they’re about to lose control of it all, before settling back into the convulsive rhythms.