I died in the Photo Pit at caroline. 

Photo by Alex Frances

Words by Alex Frances

I’ve thought hard about how to review this show. How to place yourself in my shoes this past Wednesday evening. To share the moments of the show where I felt myself both physically and emotionally thrown off my feet. An intensity that I’ve never quite experienced before. I’m not sure if I’ll do it justice, but I will try. 

caroline is an ‘English Rock’ band, formed in Manchester in 2017 with Jasper Llewellyn, Mike O’Malley and Casper Hughes at the helm. They are now situated within London, having grown to an 8-piece outfit to include guitar, drums, violin (x2), bass guitar, trombone, contrabass clarinet(!), flute, and at least 4 main vocals within their ensemble. [Jasper Llewellyn (vox/guitar/cello/), Casper Hughes (guitar/vox), Mike O’Malley (Guitar), Oliver Hamilton (Violin), Magdalena McLean (Violin/Vox), Freddy Wordsworth (guitar, bass guitar, trombone), Alex McKenzie (Contrabass Clarinet), and Hugh Aynsley (drums).]

Their headline show at KOKO ended the final night of the 6 day UK tour, a precursor to their European and US dates in March and April this year. The show opens with Nina Garcia, a French guitarist and pedal board instrumentalist, embarking on what I would call a solo post-modern punk exploration. Armed with her guitar, a pedal board, amp, and what I can only assume to be a mic in hand, she greets the crowd situated in the bowels of Camden’s KOKO with her guitar on her lap, poised with sweeping motions across the strings. Nina Garcia deals in experimentation, guitar sounds that can end the hardest of ears upon resistance. But if you watch. breathe. wait. the percussive nature of Garcia’s playing wash over you, transfixing you throughout the performance. 

Throughout and following Garcia’s performance, the KOKO begins to fill to a point where I am now unable to move between the crowd when taking photos. The tenacity of the fans fills the air as they await the arrival of caroline. In the pit, I can see the band off to the side, waiting for the clock to strike 21:00. They all file onto the stage, like school children marching into assembly, and form a circle around a lone amp centre stage. Jasper Llewellyn places a snare drum upright in front of the amp and walks back to his assigned microphone stand. caroline opens the set with ‘song two’ from their most recent album, their signature sonic buildup, Llewellyn opening up on vox, as the rest of the band begin to join in on the respective instruments, with all of them taking turns on vocals throughout the set. 

Watching caroline is a moving experience. Literally. The band undulates while on stage, rocking back and forth fervently as their eyes lock with each other through moments of tension and release. I was always drawn to caroline’s music for that reason. Those intense climaxes within their tracks. ‘Dark Blue’, the third song in their set, is a conversation between Oliver Hamilton and Magdalena McLean on violin, transfixed in words that can only be heard yet still understood. A fan favourite and one of my favourite tracks of their set. This is followed by ‘when i get home’, the beating of club music from the houseparty next door playing through the speakers while the vocalists repeat ‘when I get home, I might just ask’ over Alex’s yearning bass clarinet loops. ‘Tell Me I Never Knew That’, which features Caroline Polacheck on the track follows, with Magdalena taking over Caroline’s vocals. 

Each song is like a choral performance, something that might be suited for a theatre, which works well against the theatre-esque backdrop of the KOKO. But the second half of caroline’s set can only be described as transcending. ‘Beautiful ending’ and ‘skydiving onto the library roof’ carry on that signature tension and release, repetition and experimental sound that caroline are loved for. ‘Skydiving’ feels like a continent and time period away from the description of English Rock placed in quotations at the beginning of my review. The track is much closer to a Baroque Folk track, those church-esque choral vocals from Llewellyn opening the track, sung over the two note repetition of the cello and violins. The jingle of the electric guitar adds texture to the track as the strings change from legato to staccato and back to legato again. The end of the track coalesces into a cacophony of strings, guitars, and drums. It’s during this moment that the show is not just a show anymore, something closer to a religious experience.

‘Two riders down’ with snare blastbeats from Aynsley that transition into a maul of bass sound controlled by a synth pad by Llewellyn literally hits the audience. It’s unbelievable. You literally can’t do anything but cry and feel everything in that room. Right in your bones. Your organs. Down to the DNA in each cell. Touched, shaped, mutated; total annihilation by each wave of sound. The lights pulsate with the breakbeat on the pad. You wonder if this is what death feels like. You wonder if maybe you have died. And then it stops.

We are near the end of the set. Coldplay cover is shared by Llewellyn as a track that was almost created by accident. Two songs played between rooms in the shared house. The lefthand side of the stage made up of Hamilton, O’Malley, Llewellyn and Wordsworth form a smaller circle, while McLean, Aynsley, McKenzie and Hughes are situated on the right hand side of the stage. The left side begins the song, while McLean meanders from her faction, entering a no man’s land between the two groups, microphone in hand, bridging the gap. McLean ends back on her side as the first group fades away and the second track moves forward in prominence, much like the recorded version of the track. ‘Good morning (red)’ and ‘total euphoria’ finish the set. Hughes shouting ‘Can I be Happy, In this world’, the question posed against the repeated ‘I’m getting tired of this place, you’re right’ sung by the rest of the band. ‘Total Euphoria’ opens with the juxtaposing guitars, offbeat drums, confusion that tries to ‘correct’ itself over the course of the track, before giving up and hitting the crowd with a speechless bass synth dropped like a baptism of fire. caroline’s final goodbye as Hamilton rips on his violin in front of the lone amp, while I look at the other photographer in the pit with eyes wide open.

Set list: 

song 2

U R UR ONLY ACHING

Dark blue

When I get home

Tell Me I Never Knew That

Beautiful ending

Skydiving onto the library roof

Two riders down

Coldplay cover

Good morning (red)

total euphoria

Photos by Alex Frances