Openers King Nun have little on Spotify with their 2019 release “Mass” and are a little unknown quantity until they hit the stage. I later find out that they have another album in the pipeline that is due for release early in the new year so yeah, if their grunge-tinged post-punk cacophony appeals to you, you may want to check them out. Things that I noted during the set – 1) they are very young. Scarcely out of college, in fact I bet that’s where they got together and it was probably an art college. 2) They sound a bit like Nirvana, and most of their set seems to be heavily influenced by them. 3) the sound is shit to start with, there are 3 guitars on stage and all I can hear is drums and vocals although this is resolved by about song 3. 4) their sound is raw and unpolished and they have massive amounts of energy. They really throw themselves into the performance and there are quite a few jumps as well. 5) Their lyrics (the ones I can make out) are full of angst. 6) They also stray into indie territory with touches of Joy Division and that existential depression also hangs over some of the set like a little black cloud. 7) They do a song that makes me think of “Swallowed” by Bush - I like that one. 8) They cover Iggy Pop’s ‘Now I Wanna Be Your Dog’ and for a fleeting moment as they throw themselves about the stage and throw their instruments on the floor I wonder if they are going to go full-on Iggy and smash the stage up, but they don’t. 9) I don’t dislike them, but I don’t really get them either. I think I’m too old to appreciate them!  

 
I wasn’t originally supposed to be reviewing headliners The Hu, but as my colleague Stewart is still on the injury list I was called up from the subs bench (had to get a World Cup reference in there somewhere!) So here I am watching yet another band whose work I’m not familiar with, despite them having turned into something of a phenomenon in the last four years or so. They play power metal on traditional Mongolian instruments with full choral throat singing thrown in, and if that sounds wild you’re right, it absolutely is. It's inspiring and powerful, it's twisted folk and there are eight of them on stage so it’s also a very visual show. Despite some technical issues with the drums near the start of the set the sounds they produce are extraordinary. The vocals become a chant in places, and the range of sounds produced by these odd-looking (to our Western eyes) instruments is immense. All this is held together by a powerful rock beat, a proper contrast of both sound and cultures. At the same time the songs are rousing, and in places I think ah, this is a drinking song, this one is a battle song, this is a lovers lament – the variety is endless. They then turn things around completely and for a couple of songs they appear to have morphed aurally into early 70s Roxy Music. I am astonished, because even this change in direction works well for them. There is a selection of tsuur (wooden mouthpiceless flutes) added to the mix, and things go a bit cowboy – the percussionist is even playing coconut shells now and in my head he will forever be called Patsy! There is a duet of solos on the two morin khuur, which are two-stringed instruments that bear a vague relationship to a cello. It's very atmospheric, but at the same time ii still retains that rock base, that insistent beat. Between songs the crowd fistpump and yell “Hu Hu HU” and I learn that the correct way to say it is Huh rather than Hoo – every day is a schoolday. In the meantime the throat singing continues apace and really needs to be seen and experienced, it stirs something primal deep inside and you find yourself vibrating with it. They go back to the epic bouncy rock and even get quite close to a woah-oh chorus; these guys really do mix it up! It gets weirder and better by the minute. There’s a handful of crowdsurfers, and then the music changes direction once again and now it sounds like the bastard son of Dr Feelgood and Rammstein. I love it! The lead vocalist plays a jaw harp, something I haven’t seen on a stage ever before I don’t think, and the doing doing doing sound makes me grin even more. As the set finishes and the band take a bow I wait for the lights to come up but no, HU scream the crowd and back they come to give it their all with a cover of Metallica’s ‘Sad But True’. The crowd have gone mental and I don't blame them I'm feeling pretty mental myself. I don’t really know what I was expecting from this band, but they far exceeded anything that I had in mind. The sheer power, the performance, the joy and the whole show was pure entertainment and I loved every second of it.

Check the “In The Flesh” page for more photos!

The HU, King Nun