The first time I heard of The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart was when Luna mentioned it on Plurk. Having an overall shoegaze feel, I immediately liked them and started to listen to them quite a bit.

Due to all the irregularities in my shift for the past few weeks, I had Tuesday off and had the chance to see them live at Relentless Garage in Islington.

There were two supports that evening, Veronica Falls and Hatcham Social.

First up was Veronica Falls from London and as per their MySpace page are Pop/Goth/Shoegaze. I would have to say they are more shoegaze than anything else. I love this band to bits and not only because of the lovely lead vocalist with awesome bangs. Of the bands I saw this evening, they sounded the best in that every instrument can be heard clearly with no one overpowering. The vocals were also very clear. It is a real shame though that they don’t have a record out yet and only one song is available on their MySpace page.

As for Hatcham Social, I was not too impressed. For the most part, I thought they played too loudly for a small venue and it was not the sound techs fault as they set up their own instruments and indicated they were ok with the levels. Their performance and songs were pretty much ok, nothing too special. The loudness clearly ruined it for me. It was entertaining though when they started their set by reading a piece from Lewis Caroll’s works.

The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart was supposed to start at 10 in the evening but did not come up on stage until 10 minutes after. However, this did not mean they started their set right away. Kip (lead) spent a few more minutes tuning his guitar which he continued to do every 3 or 4 songs.

As soon as they started playing, it was clear they had their act together. They started out with a song most likely from one of their EPs as I only have the one album. It was good though. I will not go into set details as I do not remember anything at all especially with the songs from the EP thrown in the mix.

It was a great gig though and the crowd really loved it. Most of the songs from their self-titled album were on the setlist with a few old ones from the EP and new songs as well.

Unfortunately, the instruments didn’t sound perfect. They had an additional guitarist on stage but you can barely here it.

I mentioned previously when I watched Bloc Party at this venue that I totally love it. Well, I now take this back because of one minor issue, overcrowding. The venue was packed. I know it’s a tiny venue but it is not a very good idea to pack so many people into such a small venue as it sort of spoils the whole atmosphere of having a small venue. The poor ventilation did not help either. I am pretty sure this is the hottest venue in London once filled up and I mean this literally.

This was another great evening of indie and shoegaze music which I really enjoyed quite a lot. Sadly, I am quickly disliking this venue.