Parallel Lines, The Garden at Scala

The Garden twins, separated from the illusion of the ‘real world’, alienate themselves behind layers of face paint, long hair and cowboy hats in an unsettling yet oddly inclusive way. Wyatt and Fletcher Shears don’t produce easy listening music, they perform and create an audio visual portal into their world of ‘Vada Vada’ and I was glad I’d finally caught them live to be fully transported. Putting this event into words is difficult because they are an unclassifiable combination of funk, disco and rock hatched by some kind of drug fuelled alien mother.

Just one supporting act came before The Garden and it was an incredibly captivating woman called Krista Papista. Some of the lyrics were English half were something European, but understanding was irrelevant. The androgynous sexual energy she brought to the stage was so intense that even when the translations on the projection behind her read things like ‘I watched you rape my child,’ or ‘fuck me while I’m asleep,’ everyone was so engrossed in her presence it didn’t register. On a similar level to The Garden, Papista also held a strong significance in the visual experience. A true artist with music just being half of her portfolio she also makes stunning and paralysing video work.

The evening progressed quickly, and it seemed as soon as she left the stage and the crowd had smoked half a cigarette in the stairwell, The Garden had already come on stage. The new releases from the EP U Want The Scoop? got everyone into the dark angsty spiral that progressed violently throughout the set and personal favourite’s like Cloak from 2015's Haha and popular single Call This # Now got the crowd dripping with sweat. It was the happiest display of violence I’d ever seen and considering we were a mere 20 minutes from the shooting in Westminster during the day there was an overpowering sense of calm amongst the roughness.

Disregarding age, the crowd was mature and it was a nice reminder of the sense of community that gigs form for the standard 18-25 bracket without having the ‘fangirls’ diminishing it’s cultural significance. There is no stereotypical fan of The Garden, I saw a woman at least in her 80’s stood contently observing, males smothered in high glam makeup looks entering either set of toilets and girls stripping off down bras and body suits either in an attempt to cool down or just because they could. When The Garden perform they grab you by the balls and rattle you about until you’re on the brink of death, if you’re into that you might want to catch them on their next trip to the UK.

Photos by Ignasi Casas & Katie:

www.ignasicasas.com www.instagram.com/scarpheli_a/