Despite being a favorite of mine for sometime, I still listen to their debut record, Days Are Gone frequently and knew these girls can kick it having already seen them before, last May at Koko but I didn't really have any desire to catch them when they were coming to my doorstep, the O2 Academy. Tickets had been snapped up long ago, as had guestlist opportunities so when I decided at the weekend that I couldn't miss this some detective work had to be put in place as I scoured the internet for a ticket that didn't cost £££'s. With just 24 hours till showtime Twitter found me a girl from Sheffield who had a spare ticket and made this happen, for just £15! Yes, I actually paid for a gig, I know, nuts...
The room was rammed by 8pm waiting with excitement but before Haim we had to endure a thirty minute bore fest from New Zealand hopefuls, Broods. The country isn't renowned for output of musical talents but Lorde changed that, unfortunately this girl/boy combo lacked anything memorable as their electro pop vibes were nothing new. It all began bass heavy, synth heavy but weak in everything else, the energy came across forced and I spent the time waiting for it to be over. There used to be a time when I cared for the support acts more than the headliners but that hasn't happened in a while now.
Broods departed at around 8:35pm, so I was expecting Haim to kick off around 9pm, maybe a little after but we were left waiting till 9:25pm, a slightly ridiculous amount of time for change over but a soundtrack of Kanye, Beyonce and Jay Z softened the blow.
When the headliners finally showed their faces the crowd went wild, there was screams of joy and yelps of enlightenment. Drummer Dash began proceedings with thunderous hits to introduce Falling, the first of many new pop classics to feature in a seventy five minute set. Things were shaken up with a cover of Fleetwood Mac's Oh Well which showed off their edgier side as heavy guitar riffs took center stage, Este has become renowned for her mental 'bassface' but Danielle was pulling some equally odd expressions as she became entranced with her guitar. If this was a group of boys doing this they'd be labelled 'rock gods' but even with sassiness and attitude these girls are wrongly overlooked. You get three very different front-ladies with Haim, despite their sisterly bound, Este is the loud and fearless one whilst Danielle is super cool and Alana, the youngest of three bounces with excitement in the shortest of shorts.
The set continued with material from Days Are Gone, Running If You Call My Name had been reworked into something starting off intimate before exploding into a wall of sound then singles, Don't Save Me and Forever were warmly received. The encore included a cover of Beyonce's XO where Danielle took to the drums allowing Este to be the lead before The Wire where all three shared center stage. It came to a euphoric conclusion with the powerful Let Me Go ending with a tribal drum sequence from all three members proving rock n roll isn't just for testosterone fueled men.
Haim's biggest challenge will be the 'difficult second album', can they up their game? Only time will tell. I can't wait to hear the outcome.
