The Laundry, London (13th May 2015)
Well hello Honne!
Hello indeed (you will notice that all their social media handles include ‘Hello Honne’).
Honne are West Country electronic duo Andy and James. Something of an enigma really – it was very hard to find much information on the boys when sitting down to write this!
How did you find out about them?
Ever thought ‘I really want to go to that venue’ and bought tickets to a gig as a good excuse? Well, that’s what happened here. Having recently moved to East London, the venue is now pretty much on my doorstep so it worked out quite nicely.
Turns out I wasn’t the only person to have this thought as the gig was sold out…
Are you glad you did?
Of course. The boys came out ready to please and worked their way through 60 minutes of their musical catalogue. I’ve seen Honne’s music described as both electronic and RnB – the electronic I understand but the RnB I can’t quite grasp (I guess this says a lot for the connotations you have with certain genres of music as, if you take the literal definition of RnB, the boys certainly do offer this up).
Supported by an energetic band and two backing singers, Honne easily filled the stage. This coupled with their impressive stage lighting made for quite the visual show.
Plus, the venue did not disappoint and even took us by surprise a little – bigger than expected (720 capacity), the basement was previously home to an industrial laundry and offered up the perfect atmospheric, concrete space to showcase the boys.
Guitars, funk, moody vocals, soul, lighting, hooks, beards…
Beards you say?
Well, beard, to be precise. Andy sports an impressive beard which meant he fit in easily with the East London scene!
What didn’t you like?
I’m not sure I would say there was anything I didn’t like per se. James very much took a back seat during the gig and it would have been nice to see a bit more of him. The boys really got into their groove for the encore, All In The Value, with a powerful guitar chorus from both – this gave us a hint that we haven’t seen everything Andy and James have to offer and I’d like to see more of this in the future.
Oh, and as fantastic as the stage lighting was, it was a bit blinding at times!
Where can we see Honne?
They are playing a few festivals over the summer. Perhaps you could join us at Field Day?
Hmmm maybe. How can I hear more?
The boys kindly have all of their music in one place on SoundCloud for your listening pleasure –
The boys’ EP, Coastal Love, is out now.
Anything else I should know?
Honne is a Japanese term (本音) used to describe the difference between how a person portrays themselves in public and their true feelings… You learn something new every day!
Visit our Flickr page to see photo highlights from the night, and our YouTube channel where you can watch extracts from the show.
<Pictures> <Instagram> <Video>
You can also check out our Past Events page to see our music archives.
Note: We welcome you to share our content and media however kindly request that you reference the source.
We're Lost In Music 