Home Counties, Cosmorat and more ramp up the energy for Night Three of DIY’s Hello 2024 series

The upstairs room of Shoreditch’s Old Blue Last is packed and full of bouncing fans from the off, as East London boy Humane the Moon takes the stage to a rowdy hometown welcome. Last year’s debut ‘Mythomania’ EP - a propulsive four-track release that nods to Bloc Party and Jamie T, with a British rap undercurrent - is Max Hanley and his band’s only output to date, but you wouldn’t know it from the gaggle of whooping followers he’s brought with him. There’s an uncompromising bullishness and forward motion to the likes of ‘I Saw A Dog’ and ‘Dugout’ that’s made for mosh pits; give HtM another six months and he should be sparking them with no problem.

If there’s one new band across the whole of our Hello 2024 series so far that could walk on to any stage, from club to major festival, and kill it without any further development needed, it’s Cosmorat. Hailing from the US but now based in London, there’s a total confidence to frontwoman Taylor Pollock’s on stage presence that’s a joy to watch; pissing about with the crowd and throwing devil fingers between tracks, she makes it all look easy - a sentiment compounded by the playful setlist that veers seamlessly from riffing rock anthems to the bratty playground chants of ‘Backseat Baby’. A little bit Sleigh Bells, a little bit Paramore, Cosmorat have that unteachable je ne sais quoi. We predict big things.

Having already pricked up the ears of Fontaines D.C frontman Grian Chatten and Speedy Wunderground’s Dan Carey - who teamed up to produce his recent EP ‘GOD SAVE THE KING’ - British-Nigerian Peter Xan is on fiery form, stepping out over his monitors and instructing the crowd to crouch down for an explosive bounce back. Despite hailing from London, his anthemic indie-rock feels like it would find a natural home up north, where the hooks are direct and the messages streamlined. Having already enlisted Rudimental for a 2022 single, however, Xan is evidently making waves across the cities and genres.

Ahead of the release of forthcoming debut LP ‘Exactly As It Seems’, tonight’s headliners Home Counties have successfully completed the transformation from another Windmill- esque band more befitting of that sentiment to a wonkily fun troupe with far more surprises up their sleeves. Since co-vocalist and synth player Lois Kelly joined the band, their pivot to XTC nodding English eccentricity has been amped up; like Sports Team before them, Home Counties revel in the oddities of this fair isle - take rollocking recent single ‘Bethnal Green’ or the high jinx of ‘You Break It, You Bought It’ for example. It’s a far more entertaining road, and one that tonight’s punters are more than happy to dance down with them.

Tags: Cosmorat, Home Counties, Humane The Moon, Peter Xan, Hello 2024, Neu, Reviews, Live Reviews