The multi-venue Shoreditch festival continues to go from strength to strength, with standout sets from casual smart and thistle.

Mid-drought, East London. When all hope of staying hydrated, let alone fulfilled, was lost, an oasis of live music from the new world underground came into view. 

This year’s East London Block Party – a collaborative day-festival taking place across flagship Shoreditch venues The Old Blue Last, Strongroom, Colours Hoxton and Dream Bags Jaguar Shoes – was perhaps the strongest edition yet, with record numbers in attendance. Even the Simmons up the road suffered from reduced footfall.

Once wristbanded at Old Blue Last’s box office, I darted across to each of these venues in numerous combinations throughout the day, the objective to get as many bands in as possible. First up at Strongroom were Slumber, which is a name that deceives. In fact, they give off a scuzzy Cage the Elephant-meets-Bluetones energy, spearheaded by their lead singer’s kinetic performance. One track in particular stood out, ‘1993’ – which sounded a lot like ‘1979’.

Then came a switch-up to folkier climes with Potato who offered a set full of violin, variety and promise, complete with cryptic, softly spoken lyrics. Bone China beckoned next, displaying their distinct lo-fi, grunge-infused guitar pop sound at a heaving Jaguar Shoes.

The intricacy of the late afternoon programme was further underlined when said writer put the dad-bod (this despite not being a father) to the limit to sprint to wing! at Colours Hoxton. The electronic, trip-hop producer continues to mutate his songcraft in captivating ways. The live set with full drums and percussion augments that experience. The second wing! EP, ‘(WORTH SCANNING FOR)’, released a fortnight ago. It’s unavoidable. 

Shifting a few gears now with Cardiff group, casual smart, who I’ve been longing to see. Shared vocals power an emphatic set which pulls the post-rock levers, yet the music never flies off the handle. Instead, it stays in the room and gets the crowd jumping. Next came a quick step inside a John Dwyer universe with dreamwave’s kaleidoscopic, aquatic guitar and vocals combination, holding Old Blue under siege. 

The stand-out performance of the festival came from thistle. Off the back of new EP ‘Backflip’, out via Rex Records (who themselves took part in a panel with the ELBP team during the afternoon programme), this was an imperious, noisy performance from a band whose catalogue belongs in those iconic classic video game soundtracks – Tony Hawk, Gran Turismo, you name it – from the 2000s. ‘pylon’ played live exemplifies the steep upward trajectory these Northampton rockers are on. 

Truthpaste rounded my day off with a beautiful, crisp set at Strongroom. The multi-pronged instrumentation, harmonies and vocal approach melted into a joyful, vibrant performance. It summed up the sheer artistic talent that was on display at this year’s Block Party. Onto 2027.