You know you’re really getting old when you go to see a band, notice their rather obvious parents and realise that you’re old enough to be THEIR parents.
Much has been said already comparing this band with Massive Attack, Portishead and Liz Fraser.
While Laura Docherty is certainly an unusual singer, Laki Mera aren’t any of the above and should be applauded for that. Confident, different and also deploying more equipment than most, if not all, of the bands that I ever saw at The Apollo, they are I feel two bands operating under the one banner.
They either play pumping electro dance music one minute or pastoral & pretty songs, accompanied only by acoustic guitar and the palest of synth washes, the next. During some of the latter type tunes, I found my mind wandering a few times, in one particularly vivid daydream, Elvis Presley doesn’t visit Prestwick, instead it’s a young Georgio Moroder and while there he impregnates a star struck airport cleaner whose offspring are now here onstage today. During another dwam I speculate how a Greek person would greet the band in the morning (Calimera, Laki Mera!) Ultimately I suppose I was disappointed, as I first saw this crowd eighteen months ago in the 13th Note and on that occasion they performed well and showed a lot of promise. Tonight they performed just as well, however I feel they haven’t progressed as much as Spanner and I would have liked/expected.
Lighthouse Beacon Straight Ahead 