Live Review: Warpaint

I'm not sure how, but Warpaint have sold out the Kentish Town Forum. Quite a feat for a band whose debut album The Fool only dropped in the latter half of last year. Most of their songs run to five-minutes plus and are difficult to genre pigeonhole – not exactly radio friendly. Perhaps it's something to do with their Jools Holland appearance earlier this month (quite likely), or perhaps it's the fearsome live reputation they're steadily building.

Some have called their music dream pop, art rock or shoegaze, but there's also a post-punk iciness that's often leavened by Stella Mozgawa's superb funk and disco influenced drumming.

Whatever the case, when they play to their strengths they're electrifying.

Opening with non-album track 'Jubilee' they exhort the crowd to dance, swinging their hips to Jenny Lee Lindberg's grinding bass. Spectral harmonies emerge in the interplay between Emily Kokal and Theresa Wayman's lead and rhythm guitars on 'Stars', leading us into a ghostly trance.

In fact this dirgy trance threatens to bog down the whole gig, because by 'Beetles', the last track before the encore, there's a distinct drop in energy. The biggest cheer comes for single 'Undertow', which is also their poppiest number, and it hints where Warpaint's future direction should head. Their strength is as an experimental indie pop band, not an art rock band with undercurrents of pop.

Thankfully in the encore Kokal's solo performance of 'Baby' brings the focus back, and the closing instrumental jam of 'Elephants' is truly stunning. With the spotlight on the drum riser, Lindberg and Mozgawa unleash a blistering stripped down freakout that blows the roof off the Forum. About time too.