The Virgins – Old Blue Last, London 12/11/08

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Photographs by Sonny Malhotra

It’s probably ignorant of me to tuck my notepad under my arm and head off to the Old Blue Last to watch The Virgins on a Wednesday evening and expect not to find myself rammed into a sweat box with barely an inch of breathing space to cling to. Clearly, quite a few people like The Virgins quite a lot.

Every once in a while I go to a gig and, despite being of about the average age of most of the crowd I somehow manage to feel… old. This particular gig turns out to be one such occasion; guitarist Wade Oates’ gaffer taped trousers are a sign that despite my grasping affection for youth subcultures, I’ll never truly be able to keep up with hipster fashion.

Admittedly, I don’t go to The Old Blue Last all that much, all the same I don’t think I’ve never seen the upstairs of that place quite so full. There was a physical sense of the hype surrounding this band as the crowd waited for them to take to the stage – The Virgins have obviously already inspired a dedicated fan base.

As the band play and a few members of the crowd decide to make use of every square centimetre available to them for the purposes of arhythmical dancing, each elbow that lands in my ribs is a reminder of just how much enthusiasm this band have inspired. The band themselves, although perhaps more restrained than I was expecting them to be are also clearly enjoying themselves. The decision to play pretty good rendition of ‘At The Junction’ was probably influenced by the mistaken belief that anyone in the room would actually be from East London, but is an admirable gesture none the less.

For the second half of the set, as I slip to one side of the stage in search of oxygen I’m able to observe as the room continues to fill up and gleeful faces mouth the lyrics to each song, (striking, since The Virgins have barely released a thing yet) and although I’m not quite as taken with the music as some present clearly are, the atmosphere is almost infectious. The energy the performance whips up is impressive- and while the music from this the stage is to my ears at no point particularly amazing, I have to admit that probably doesn’t mean an awful lot, since the heaving room of fans at the Old Blue Last are probably the crest of a wave of people that will be flocking to see this band in coming months.

The Virgins did what they did with and put on a show, and if this kind of thing is to your taste, you’ll probably love it. From last night’s showing it seems that The Virgins are just getting started.