The PearShaped Exeter Launch Party

Thank you.

When we started to plan our first event, we approached the project with a kind of cheery pessimism. “It’ll be alright if only the contributors come”, we said. “It’ll just be like a very extravagant hangout with friends, except in the Cavern.” This eventually was something we were very ready for, and so we made sure that our launch party would have a good atmosphere for a few friends hanging out, listening to some great music.

We saw some of your faces as the physical tickets started to get bought and exchanged, and yet again we were stumped when we saw somebody that none of us knew. At our final ticket exchange, the incredulous worry began - we might be about to sell out. We were counting and recounting the ticket numbers and sure enough, we had to stop selling. We had sold out our first event.

It’s funny because that vision that we had of a laid-back hangout set to great music wasn’t far off what we got - albeit with a far more densely packed room. Our Tom Elliott got a fantastic response from a very warm crowd, who seemed little dampened by the monsoon weather out at street level. That sense of friendliness, and that gathering of people around good music was something we were incredibly happy to see coming to life.

Lion The Weak delivered a fantastic set of sultry indie to a packed dancefloor of seemingly enamoured female fans (don’t let it go to your heads, guys). Perhaps the appeal is, in part, due to singer Jack Shepard’s resemblance to Friendly Fires’s Ed McFarlane, both in choice of shirt and penchant for flamboyant dancing. The sound of Lion The Weak leaves little to be desired; the love child of Theme Park and Two Door Cinema Club, with a sprinkling of Foals.

Our last band, Isaac Indiana, did not fail to deliver the energy. By the end of their set, the air above the dancefloor was visibly misty with dance sweats. In addition to their fantastic originals, the guys delivered fantastic some covers of Rudimental, Bloc Party and the highlight, Praise You by Fatboy Slim.

We were expecting a very different crowd to be interested in our next act, Francis Red. However, an overwhelming amount of people stayed on the dancefloor and rolled right through into losing their minds to Red’s unique blend of Electro House and gritty Electroswing. The effect was ecstatic, and the man himself was very pleased with his first sellout gig. The staunch residents of the dancefloor couldn’t be moved until well into the night, dancing through a great set of Deep House from Moe Jatthews.

We want to give a huge thank you to everybody that made our launch event such a success. We’re readying our next event now, keep your eyes peeled.