It was the end of an absolutely scorching week when cheeky Spanish girl band, Hinds, rolled into town for their packed-out gig at Brighton’s Concorde 2. On a Friday night when the sun was still shining through the windows of the venue at 8pm (for a short period the almost permanently closed blinds had been rolled up), the group brought a perfect mix of fun, frolicking and summer tunes to the seaside city, if only for a brief 90 minutes or so.
Opening with most recent single, ‘The Club’, the band had the audience instantly at their command, the catchy bass line and bouncy guitar riffs of the track reflecting the tropical weather outside and increasingly excited atmosphere of the venue. Having released their second studio album, I Don’t Run, just weeks before, the band’s messy indie rock sounded fresh and new as their set list interwove new tracks, old tracks, and covers, their playful attitude exuding throughout the gig. ‘Caribbean Moon’, a reworking of Kevin Ayers’ 1973 track had the crowd swaying as the temperature of the room slowly rose. The band joked, referring to themselves as melting like ‘wax’ as they jumped around the stage, performing pre-choreographed dance routines and diving into the crowd.
Older tracks such as ‘Bamboo’ and ‘Garden’, taken from 2016’s Leave Me Alone, did not go amiss throughout the evening, the crowd singing along to every word as the bold chords and band’s signature echoing guitar riffs crept in. Closing the set with ‘New For You’ and ‘San Diego’, the girls contrasted a new, more emotionally exploratory track with a raw tune, released way back when the group first began their musical journey.
Having last seen the band two years ago at Reading Festival, warming up the NME stage before the likes of Mura Masa, it’s hard not to comment on how the band have developed. In releasing their second album they have further defined their sound whilst staying true to their endearing personalities, and we can only hope that they continue to make music exactly as they are right now.
