Silver Gore, Lover’s Skit, Pearl2 and pollyfromthedirt triumphantly round out Hello 2026 

The end is nigh. The Lucky Saints have been sunk, The Traitors finale is over, and your line manager is asking you to come back into the office for at least three days a week. With January in its death throes, we say a solemn farewell to DIY’s Hello series for another year. Might as well make it a proper send off, right?

And thus we shall: first up tonight, Darlington’s pollyfromthedirt ascends to the stage, their face encased in what can only be described as a half-cat, half-Venetian mask. Beneath that mask, though, is a master of their craft. Yipping, intensely delayed vocals hook over one another as snappy pianos, detuned guitars and hip-hop style grooves undulate beneath in a psychedelic and deeply odd soup of folktronica. Atop a technicolour canvas of ornate, Beach Boys-esque melodies and stiff bass weaponry, pollyfromthedirt sounds like if Panda Bear was from the North East, and had been given a production masterclass in UK bass by James Blake. In a nutshell: an incredibly exciting, individual talent.

Quickly following on is one of the more hyped acts of the evening, Pearl2 - an outfit who, live, are akin to transmutation in sonic form. Metallic grooves and clangy samples encompass contorted trip-hop beats, while dubby bass guitar sits firmly in your sternum - tighter and more engulfing than any live bass has ever sounded. Lola Stephen’s spectral vocal is ghostly and whispered, dancing over beats that morph from the churning roll of Massive Attack to the space of Air, via the minimal techno of Kelly Lee Owens. Across the audience, all to be seen are nodding heads, swaying bodies, and lights shimmering off closed eyelids.