Sometimes you just know instantly.
A few seconds into Paris Texas’ first London headline show, and there’s no doubt that the rap-slash-well-pretty-much-everything-actually-duo are The Real Thing and everything that ‘BOY ANONYMOUS’ and their latest EP, ‘Red Hand Akimbo’ promised them to be. Tonight’s show in Hoxton is the perfect demo of just why Brockhampton have snapped them up as support for their US run in the spring. From the moment Louis and Felix burst onto stage wearing angel wings and huge grins, it’s a real masterclass in building, and holding the energy in a room at the absolute breaking point. And then tweaking it a little bit more until the room is ready to mosh during even the slowest of moments.
They run through pretty much their entire catalogue at the speed of a transatlantic jet. By the end, it’s hard to tell whether that’s sweat or beer dripping from the ceiling. It’s also hard to stage dive, or it was for the guy who takes a flying leap face-first into the floor anyway. The chaos becomes infectious, a circle pit opening up at one point with the crowd not even realising that the duo have nipped off stage for the encore which of course brings ‘FORCE OF HABIT’ and that final, frantic release of joyous energy. Paris Texas? London’s in love now, the whole world will be soon enough.
