THE KLITTENS + FRIEND OF FRANKY – THE HOPE & RUIN, BRIGHTON 18.7.24
The Amsterdam underground indie band The Klittens opened their UK tour at Brighton’s Hope & Ruin courtesy of promoter Love Thy Neighbour. This exciting band is made up of five friends Yaël Dekker (vocals), Winnie Conradi, Katja Kahana (both guitar), Marrit Meinema (bass guitar) and Laurie Zantinge (drums). Their friendship came through in the fun feel to their set, which mixed the catchiness of pop and fuzz with a hint of dark post punk.
The Klittens opened with two tracks from their latest EP, ‘Butter’. Vocalist Yaël introduced their first song ‘Universal Experience’ as about having a rubbish childhood, but pretending you’re normal. Its soft indie pop sound and jangle-pop hooks was the first of several examples of the great vocal harmonies within the band. Next up ‘Traffic Light’ started with a more spoken word delivery from Yaël, which reminded me of Dry Cleaning’s Florence Shaw. Their first single ‘Manic Dixi Dream Girl’ with its 90’s indie pop sound was more experimental with one of the guitarists adding feedback through the monitor. Afterwards Yaël explained it was about being in a bad place and how to escape it.
One of my highlights of The Klittens exciting set was the upbeat ‘Reading Material’. It featured a clever dual vocal between the lead singer and one of the guitarists. Both came centre stage and sang on the same mic, passing it between them as each one finished their line. Towards the end during an instrumental part, singer Yaël danced like a puppet or clockwork toy with sharp exaggerated movements.
After the post punk sounding ‘Pristine Blue’, the mood mellowed for ‘Liebe Resi’. Drummer Luarie explained that it was a German song and they’d used Google translate, as “contrary to popular belief, not all Dutch people speak German”. ‘Liebe Resi’ had a relaxed 1960’s feel to it.
Both of the next two songs ‘Atlas’ and ‘Canned Air’ had great guitar intros, with the different styles of Winnie and Katja working so well together. ‘Atlas’ was about lifelong promises, despite not knowing what life will bring. Yaël’s vocals were more folk-like on this song. ‘Canned Air’ was another great indie pop song, which closed with the three guitarists Winnie, Katja and Marrit singing a cappella.
What thus far had been a masterclass in catchy indie guitar songs took a step change in style for the final two numbers in The Klittens’ set. ‘Acid Violet 43’ had an industrial heavy sound, with an angry and somewhat sinister feel. The often-shouted lyrics were more of a punk style singing. ‘Hold My Beer’, their last song, was a short sharp riot grrl track.
Throughout their set The Klittens cleverly paired happy songs and sad sentiments. Their musical mix of indie-fuzz, DIY and dark post-punk created some very danceable tunes. This resulted in a very enjoyable and entertaining performance, evident by the crowd’s reaction and the queue afterwards at the merch stall.
The Klittens:
Yaël Dekker – vocals
Winnie Conradi – guitar
Katja Kahana – guitar
Marrit Meinema – bass guitar
Laurie Zantinge – drums
The Klittens setlist:
‘Universal Experience’ (from 2024 ‘Butter’ EP)
‘Traffic Light’ (from 2024 ‘Butter’ EP)
‘Manic Dixi Dream Girl’ (a 2020 single release)
‘Reading Material’ (from 2024 ‘Butter’ EP)
‘Pristine Blue’ (from 2022 ‘Citrus’ EP)
‘Liebe Resi’ (a 2020 single release)
‘Atlas’ (from 2024 ‘Butter’ EP)
‘Canned Air’ (from 2022 ‘Citrus’ EP)
‘Acid Violet 43’ (from 2022 ‘Citrus’ EP)
‘Hold My Beer’
Find out more about the band HERE.
Support for The Klittens came from local Brighton based Friend Of Franky. The four-piece band is made up of Kit Madge (vocals), Anna (guitar and backing vocals), Viv (bass) and Phil (drums). An observant colleague spotted that bassist Viv also plays in Polite Bureaux, and that it was Anna’s first appearance with the band.
There was a real mix of styles across Friend Of Franky’s seven song set from indie to rock. The emotional vulnerability of their song writing, which the band describe as “music for people inclined to snoop in drawers and read diaries” characterised their sound.
Friend Of Franky’s opening song ‘Be Bad’ had a rock sound with its prominent drums, while ‘Safe’ had a darker feel to its 1980’s pop sound. On this, as with every song in the set, Kit put a great deal of emotion into her singing. The assortment of styles was again shown, when Kit announced “We used to call this our disco section. It’s not really.” Saying that the person on lighting clearly noticed the more upbeat nature of the music. By contrast ‘Pretty’ had a dreamier feel.
Kit introduced ‘Too Cool’ as being about gay panic, and wishing she was cooler and could talk to really cool people. This poppier song had a particularly good bass line from Viv.
The tempo changed again for the next song ‘Windowsill’. Kit sat on the stage floor and said that Anna would “play some sad guitar as I open up about a relationship”. Kit sang this heartfelt song about her break up beautifully, initially to Anna’s lone guitar, before Viv and Phil joined in with soft bass and drums.
They closed with a darker alt-rock number ‘Hate You’. The quiet break mid-song confused some in the audience, as they thought the song had ended. The band got the audience back as they picked up the tempo in the latter part of the closing song.
Friend Of Franky’s mix of musical styles and personal heartfelt lyrics went down well with most of the people at The Hope and Ruin.
You can catch Friend Of Franky on Wednesday 24th July when they play the Green Door Store supporting Cowz along with HEIGHTS and it’s only £3 on the door to get in!
Friend Of Franky:
Kit Madge – vocals
Anna – guitar and backing vocals
Viv – bass
Phil – drums
Friend Of Franky setlist:
‘Be Bad’
‘Safe’
‘Rose In A Box’
‘Pretty’
‘Too Cool’
‘Windowsill’
‘Hate You’
