SON Estrella Galicia brought the fun to East London with Coach Party in tow

The latest in SON Estrella Galicia’s ‘micro-festival’ event series returned to East London’s Paper Dress Vintage on Thursday night, bringing along The New Eves and Coach Party for the ride. Taking over both floors of Hackney’s iconic vintage-shop-meets-venue, the Spanish beer specialists looked to music as a force for good as they delivered a myriad of activities grounded in their ethos of environmental sustainability.

With the aim of hosting a Zero Waste event, the sold-out show encouraged music fans to bring along worn-out clothes to be fixed up by the store’s seamstress, enjoy a selection of 0km tacos served up by a local vendor, and create a beer-inspired song in an app-based interactive music-making workshop. With DJ sets from FlipSide and Les Enfants Terribles turning up the volume outside, spirited funk and jazz tunes evolved into Japanese City Pop and obscure movie soundtracks as the evening wore on.

When the event’s serving of live music got underway upstairs, Brighton’s The New Eves weaved a ritualistic blend of folk, indie and punk as they paraded across the venue’s curtain-draped stage. While the group may have only a handful of singles out so far, their unreleased material brimmed with harmonious sighs, screams in unison, enviable violin wielding and fairytale-esque operatic interludes.

Closing out their set with “a little tribute to rock and roll”, the quartet’s launch into an excitable cover of “Wild Thing” sent the tightly-packed room into an animated frenzy.

A year on from the release of their debut album KILLJOY, Isle of Wight-based four-piece Coach Party delivered a raucous, strobe-fueled affair peppered with witty, crowd-pleasing quips. The group ran through album tracks like “All I Wanna Do Is Hate”, “Hi Baby” and “Micro Aggression”, melding 90s grunge with pop-infused, melodic vocals that saw fans joyously clamour beneath them. Pausing the show to thank everyone for having them, they directed their tongue-in-cheek humour back home with guitarist Steph Norris musing if Thursday night outs even happen on the Isle of Wight. “I don’t think Saturdays happen on the Isle of Wight,” vocalist Jess Eastwood quipped back.

With an infectious grin plastered across her face for the duration of their headline set, Eastwood gestured at the glowing SON Estrella Galicia neon sign behind her and admitted that her matching flying-V bass and head-to-toe outfit in “Estrella Red” had been purely coincidental. Playful remarks abound, the quartet’s launch into “Shit TV” saw Eastwood comment “[this song] came out before we did our last album, so we hate it,” and, after an accidental false start from guitarist Joe Perry that Eastwood quickly forgave with an “at the end of the day we’re all just human beings”, Norris’ amiable “I’m one of those lizard people” brought jovial cheers from the eager crowd.

As Eastman whirled the mic stand into the air for the night’s closing song, EP track “FLAG (Feel Like a Girl)” erupted with wailing guitars, explosive distortion, and an entranced audience that jostled and chanted along with them.

Photos by Alex Amorós / SON Estrella Galicia