Gig Review: SON Estrella Galicia x Coach Party x The New Eves
SON Estrella Galicia’s Micro-Festival delivers a perfect pour of music, culture, and community in Hackney.
As we say goodbye to summer, we also say farewell to festival season. It’s never an easy departure and it’s hard not to start the countdown until the next one. However, there’s one festival that never slows down regardless of what time of year it is, satisfying that itch for a musical jamboree. Hackney’s favourite micro-festival SON Estrella Galicia welcomed September with a sold-out night of great beer, great food, and performances from The New Eves and Coach Party, while DJ sets ensured the energy was maintained throughout the night from start to finish.
The dedicated musical arm of the Spanish brewery has made a home out of East London’s bustling music scene, holding a number of events at Paper Dress Vintage over the past year. They’ve recently grown to include Hackney’s Two Palms, and Brighton’s The Prince Albert. With each event, SON Estrella Galicia presents an opportunity to delve into Spain’s beer and gastronomical culture, all while appreciating diverse line-ups of both seasoned and rising artists, with previous acts including Swim Deep, DEADLETTER and Prima Queen. The brewery also ensures that they’re aligned with a good cause, incorporating the promotion of sustainability and positive impact as a core part of the evening’s activities.
The SON Estrella Galicia experience also prides itself on being interactive. For one night, Paper Dress is transformed into an Estrella Galicia themed playground. They previously offered ‘What Does Your Beer Sound Like?’ workshops, a unique group beer tasting which explores the Estrella Galicia brewing process using musical composition as an example. In promoting sustainability, they’ve presented murals painted on-site and the making of recycled plastic accessories. For their latest night of festivities, they switched things up a little bit.
‘What Does Your Beer Sound Like?’ has adopted a more immersive approach, and guests were invited to learn how to pour the perfect pint. A tailor was available throughout the night to make small repairs and alterations, encouraging reuse by giving new life to old clothing. One constant for the Paper Dress nights is Yellow Warbler, a local café that was there to serve up delicious food selectively paired with Estrella Galicia beers.
There’s plenty to occupy yourself with between sets, but a lively anticipation for the music was ever-present. So by the time The New Eves were ready for the stage, the room was already filled to the brim with excitable bodies. The best way to describe the manner of the Brighton quartet comes from some of the commentary that emerged from the crowd at points between songs; occasional murmurs of “that’s different”, or “I’ve never seen anything like it before.”
The band’s idiosyncratic style of punk-driven folksong both raised eyebrows and entranced. The group cast a spell as their carefully drawn harmonies weaved through the room, occasionally breaking to give way for yelps and yodels. Up against the oscillation of funk-toned bass and mercurial violin on ‘Astrolabe’, and the slithery charm of spindly flute notes and unsettled strings on ‘Mother!’, you were pulled between a celebratory solstice swing around a maypole and an eerie ghost tour. Closing with their rendition of The Troggs’ ‘Wild Thing’ as a tribute to rock and roll, The New Eves’ novelly mesmeric mashup made them stand out as one of the most impressive acts hosted by SON Estrella Galicia.
The contrast to highly anticipated four-piece Coach Party was distinct in that it kept the night particularly interesting. The room remained full up for the scorching stylings of the Isle of Wight-born indie rockers who brought a vibrant rumble to the space. Introduced with a classic, The Clash’s ‘London Calling’, the group was welcomed with eager applause. Rather than trying to place meaning in what was going on, attendees let loose to Coach Party’s pop-tinged grunge tones as they tore through most of their 2023 album ‘KILLJOY’, making brief visits to earlier EPs for a playfully bold set. The group locked in on anthemic favourites ‘All I Wanna Do Is Hate’, ‘What’s The Point in Life’ and ‘FLAG (Feel Like A Girl), ensuring that the frenetic energy was never lost. On the whole, the range in the performances for the night really encapsulated what SON Estrella Galicia is all about. Bringing something fresh, unique and lively to the table - bringing a community together in the process.
It was a final summer hurrah, and another successful event for SON Estrella Galicia to add to the list of many. An established cultural necessity, their microfestivals are gifts that keep on giving ingenuity while highlighting some of the best up and coming talent that the UK music scene has to offer.