A Shoreditch take on the Camden Crawl, Concrete and Glass showcased both a prime selection of international indie talent and the innate inability of anyone east of Farringdon to run an event on time. At the tiny Strongroom, Anni Rossi was a minor revelation- she looks like Amy Milian, has the vocals of a gentrified Jenny Lewis, the intricate solo string arrangements of Owen Pallett and the eccentric style (and occasional inaccessibility) of Joanna Newsom. Although the loop-pedal thing has been done to death, she’s got an idiosyncratic edge that distinguishes her from similar artists and despite her songs being too avant-garde on occasion to be easily digested on first listen, she came up with an Ace of Base cover which for me instantly equates to AUTOMATIC WIN. The unhinged, magical Liz Green was even better; though she was ill-served by her scrappy and underprepared backing band, it did little to diminish her astonishing, bewitching vocals that seemed to emerge from some far-gone decade. Wildbirds and Peacedrums were their typically amazing selves, ultimately triumphing in a battle against bad sound and a bad audience (mostly there for Lykke Li) and James Yuill provided a fun counterpart to the ethereal folk with his whimsical electronica and tongue-and-cheek mash-ups. Shame that the shifting timetables precluded checking out other bands on the line-up (had to skip Port O’ Brien and David Thomas Broughton) but on the whole it was an impressive start to what will hopefully become an annual East End institution. (Photo: Carmymac (Flickr))
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