After hearing all the hype about TOY over the last few years, I was really looking forward to seeing them live for the first time. Their latest release ‘Join The Dots’ is absolutely mesmerising, and after listening as a new fan, I couldn’t wait to see how TOY would perform live. Originally formed in Brighton in 2010, TOY have since taken the UK by storm, touring and releasing their electrifying sound. They were returning to Brighton to perform at The Old Market a venue which suited the band perfectly.

I must say I was quite surprised at the general age group attending the gig which seemed to be a 50/50 split between the young ‘hipsters’ on one side and then the middle-aged men (who were clearly psychedelic rock fanatics back in the day) on the other. This difference in age groups gave a really nice atmosphere within the audience and proved that TOY’s appeal is unanimous with many different  groups of music lovers.

On stage TOY arranged themselves in a line at the front (except for the drummer who was traditionally stationed towards the back) which I find isn’t done often enough during live performances as I think this style of stage set-up really allows each musician to perform and enjoy an equal part of the spotlight. TOY’s changes in between songs were some of the smoothest transitions I have ever seen or heard in a live gig including a complete (and very swift) guitar re-tune mid-song. Unfortunately though, as tight as they were, TOY didn’t really interact with the audience throughout the set – except for an occasional ‘this next song’s called…’ which, although it added to their mysterious aura, I missed having some audience-band banter – however minimal.

You could clearly see that every single member of TOY was incredibly passionate and completely engaged with playing the music which helped to create TOY’s overall excellent performance – even though it did feel at times as if they were all performing as separate entities due to little physical communication between the band members. This certainly didn’t affect the music however as the band were incredibly tight and performed extremely well with a couple of highlights being their performance of ‘Join The Dots’ and ‘Endlessly’, both transferred onto the live stage incredibly well.

Sadly TOY’s performance only lasted 40 minutes and they ended their gig by creating a sound-scape of feedback and other distortions before dropping their instruments to the floor and exiting the stage in a very rock-star manner. There was no encore either – much to the dismay of the audience, as you could feel that they were yearning for just one more ‘hit’ of their TOY fix!

Eva Rose

Website: thebandtoy.com
Facebook: facebook.com/toy.band
Twitter: twitter.com/thebandtoy