Out of the blue the other day, I received an invite from Nokia. From what I can make out, Lumia Live Sessions, presented by Nokia is part showcase of a couple of interesting looking bands (more on those in a bit), part product showcase (I’m getting a new phone to play with for a while) and part service showcase (Nokia Music – which my second hand deductions would hazard a guess at a ‘Spotify Killer’ headline in the making type proposition).
Nokia have partnered with big league Bloggers and filmography collective : La Blogothèque, who “film beautiful, rare and intimate sessions with your favorite artists, and the ones you are soon to fall in love with.” The premise of this, as well as the location seem to have a bit in common with our friends at OntSofa – who’s Leeds studio is just a few doors down from The Leeds Cage, where the evening will unfold on Thursday.
Yea – I did a double take on the venue as well. If you think Leeds Cage sounds like it could be a purpose built cage fighting venue, you’d be cock on. For one night only this Mixed Martial Art venue will be turned into an “electrifying live music venue”. I’m quite fascinated by the potential of this idea. The notion of putting art in unusual spaces adds a whole other dimension. It begs the question though – will it be the bands in the cage, or the audience?
The headliners – a 4 piece electro pop outfit from North East Northamptonshire called Fencech-Solar have a sound that’s very clean, very strong, very here and now. Drawing influence from the likes of Daft Punk and The Chemical Brothers, Their vocally lead instrumentation is dominated by heavy synth sounds – like that of their Novation K Station, but complimenting this in their audio arsenal, there’s everything from acoustic guitar to harp to baby grand piano. I’ll be interested to see what they bring along to The Cage this Thursday.
* Fenech-Solar are supported by 4 piece Leeds locals China Rats, who’ve got a staunchly original yet strangely familiar feel to them – The northern grit of say the Arctic Monkeys meets The Stone Roses with a dash of The Coral and the wry smile of Buddy Holly.
All in all, I think it’s shaping up to be an interesting evening. A hashtag has kicked off – #lumialive – if you’re interested.. I’ll more than likely review said gig. Stay tooned!
* update: 1st May I’ve just heard that Department M are replacing China Rats as the warm up act. Good stuff!
