Shortparis - the Russian rockers who've won over Drowned In Sound, Louder Than War, The Quietus, and as well as us - since being such a thrilling live force on the European showcase scene - are heading to the UK for their first gig.
It will be held at Moth Club, Hackney Central, London on 4 May and promoted by SC&P & Bad Vibrations. And tickets are available here.
The announcement comes as the St Petersburg-based band released a new single (streaming below) that's racked up well over a million views, mostly from Russia where they have 30,000 social media followers (see their VK page). With Facebook followers of just over 5,500, it doesn't give you the full picture of just how big this band have become over the last few months.
The band, who last wowed us at Station Narva on the Russian/Estonian border, first came into our radar when we heard their 2017 album Пасха. Of the album Gigwise's Steven Kline opined: "It resembles a band trying to smash five decades of music with an electrified cricket bat. Rave, Radiohead, Depeche Mode, darktronica, Balkan folk, eastern psychedelia, Muse and rock ragas, all set about mercilessly by singer Nikolay while apparently in a fit of raging tears."
We since interviewed them after a gig where they spoke in a self-aware and articulate way about their position in trying to climb the ranks of the rock world. With a healthy amount of self-deprecation they described their music as "hate pop". "That means that we try to make pop and always hate everything that we play, and so we try to find the sounds that we don’t hate,” says synth player Aleksandr Galianov.
Shortparis are among a number of bands from Russia who've caught our aeye lately. The Moscow Music Week showcase festival proved a productive visit as we discovered garage rockers Spasibo, psych band Lucidvox (who are also coming to the UK for their first London show), jazz metallers Brom, the show-y Dj Maskeliade, among others. N.B. This showcase festival is not funded by the Russian government as the government actively support traditional and academic/classical music and do not support contemporary independent/ alternative music.
Shortparis are expected to make a number of further UK announcements. They have already announced they'll play Sound City. Stay tuned to Gigwise to find out more.
