Deaf Havana – Live at Londons House Of Wolf

Deaf Havana Press Photo 2013

With their new album Old Souls released soon Deaf Havana decided to treat a few lucky fans to super intimate acoustic show at the tiny House Of Wolf venue in London. Backed by a string quartet the band squeezed onto the venues tiny stage to play an acoustic set to give people a taste of the new album. Opening with lead single “Boston Square” gave fans a chance to sing along to a song they knew before hearing the newer tracks, but the band were able to put a new twist on the song by performing it acoustically and with the string quartet. It’s very clear how far Deaf Havana have come from their early Post-Hardcore days and how much they have changed. New songs “Speeding Cars” and “Night Drive” sound like they could have fit in on Fools And Worthless Liars, but that isn’t to say they sound the exact same, they just feel like a natural progression from that album. James Veck-Gilodi’s vocals continue to sound as good as they did before with him performing with more emotion than ever and for the first time his brother and new member of the band for this album gets to take lead vocals on “Mildred (Lost A Friend)” which both brothers claim to be about their neighbours old cat.

Of all the new songs “Caro Padre” stood out the most, written about his dad it’s clearly a very emotional song for James and that is apparent form his performance of it. It’s very clear that Deaf Havana are less of a typical rock band this time around with more folk elements making their way into the bands sound. But what this does is helps them to stand out among a lot of of the bands struggling to get noticed in the British rock scene right now. What is very clear is that fans of Fools And Worthless Liars are almost definitely going to enjoy Old Souls as the new songs played feel similar to ones off of the last album only bigger. During their nine song set they even manage to squeeze in two older songs which are given a new spin thanks to the string quartet. At only nine songs it might not have been the longest set but it gave a good taste of what to expect when the new album is released. Old Souls looks set to be one of the most impressive and unique British rock albums released in a long time and with the band playing their biggest headline shows ever later this year, this intimate acoustic show felt incredibly special. (8 / 10)

Features Editor’s note: We thought this had been published, but due to a scheduling tool cock-up, it’s sat in the archives for two and a half months, so that’s why certain things in the review are slightly out of date.

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