Tilly And The Wall @ The Buffalo Bar

This last minute, warm-up gig for Tilly And The Wall's Carling Weekend shows popped up only a couple of days before the show so i eagerly rushed to get a ticket or two, especially as they cancelled their library, which was meant to be on the same evening.
The Buffalo Bar was pretty heaving even before the support acts had taken the stage, its a pretty small, basement-like space but still it was busy. The supports were your usual not-that-great background music sort of bands, except for the last band, who were really fun. I think they were called The Grave Architects and their last song was a rapping, dancey delight. Got the crowd moving.

Tilly entered stage right, clapping, stomping and singing something about London city and boobies and titties, the smile on my face immediately broaden from the excited grin that was already there. They opened, after some forgetfulness from Kianna about which song they were playing (cue girlie giggles) with their new single, Rainbows In The Dark. The band exude so much energy on stage, the majority of it coming from tap-dancer Jamie, who hardly has a second's break from stomping and waving her arms throughout the whole performance, but the other Tillies join in with some joyous "Woooooo"ing and stomping, which adds so much to the overall fun.

Their set comprises of almost all the songs you could want, from old ones like Reckless and Fell Down The Stairs to a whole bunch of the new album. It was encouraging to hear the newer songs fitting so well into the set, as last time i saw them, only Bad Education asserted as much presence as the old songs but now that and all the others seem right at home on stage. The sound, unfortunately, didn't help any of the songs. It seems the getting the mixing right for this band is tricky, both times i've seen them it hasn't been right, this time the guitar and keyboard were so quiet, overpowered by the brute force of tap-dancing and singing, but i suppose they're the two main reasons you go to see Tilly live, to see the tap-dancing and to sing along to some wonderful tunes.

The set ended and the obvious encore occured (sometimes i wonder why bands even leave the stage). Starting with Pictures Of Houses from the Woo! ep, which i hadn't heard before but really liked then finishing unsurprisingly on Night Of The Living Dead, the crowd went crazy, the girl in front of me went wild, arms flailing everywhere, its such a good, raucous, shouty way to end an evening. It was a shame that they didn't have time to play one more coz they hadn't played The Ice Storm... which was incredible last time i saw them but i suppose you can't get everything and it was past midnight by that time. My trip home on the tube was very merry indeed.

Tilly And The Wall - Fell Down The Stairs
Tilly And The Wall - Rainbows In the Dark

I also found some live tracks on Lullabyes, which are great, definately worth a look, here's a couple:

Tilly And The Wall - Fuck Yea
Tilly And The Wall - Bad Education

p.s. cheers to lornethomson from the Tilly livejournal for the photos, they're awesome!!