Blog: Lande Hekt at The Moth Club

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On Sunday afternoon I strolled across sunny East London from my house to close-but-not-that-close HACKNEY, there to meet Mr S Hewitt, have some BEER, and go and see Lande Hekt.

I have been very much enoying her new album what came out recently, but was mostly driven to get a ticket by the FIRST album which I flipping LOVED. It was recommended to me by VARIOUS people a couple of years ago when I was looking for some new music to listen to but didn't know what was going on currently. This was a very fruitful act, as it yielded not just L Hekt but also The Beths and The Lemon Twigs, the latter being my NEXT gig in a few weeks!

I met Steve in The Cock Tavern which is a nice pub but one I felt a bit wary of searching for on my phone i.e. "Cock in Hackney" is not necessarily going to yield the results I was looking for. We discussed matters various over some VERY nice beers, looked at some DOGS, and then wandered over to The Moth Club where we saw the last 20 seconds of Mumble Tide. I was sorry to miss them but hopefully that still counts if they become famous!

We went over to say hello to Mr S Price, formerly known as Sean Fortuna Pop but now I guess Sean Tapete Records? Weirdly Sean was pretty much the only person there I knew - I was expecting to see lots of old faces from The Indietracks Community, as L Hekt is VERY MUCH that sort of thing, but oddly not. Instead there were loads of people I didn't know but who looked EXACTLY like they MIGHT have been at Indietracks, just not necessarily in any bands that I'd gigged with!

Talking of which, the next act on were The Popguns who, as ever, were BLOODY GRATE. I have ended up seeing them, and also the stripped-down The Perfect English Weather version of them, LOADS of times, partly due to booking them to play at Totally Acoustic several times. The odd thing about them is that I always forget just how brilliant they are, and this time was no exception, as they flipping ROCKED and sounded AMAZING.

By this point Steve and I had inveigled ourselves into a BOOTH, but I forsook my comfort to go down near-ish the front for Lande Hekt, partly to get a better view and partly to get out of earshot of the Group Of People Talking Very Loudly At The Back. There always seems to be a Group Of People Talking Very Loudly At The Back at every gig I go to these days, whether above a pub or in a mighty arena, and I do wish they'd shut up but at least it does push the likes of me to go nearer the stage, which in this case was WELL WORTH IT as I became immersed in the intensely polite and careful audience who were all very keen to check none of us were in each other's way!

It also meant that I was in the perfect place to enjoy the IMMENSE SOUNDSCAPE of Lande Hekt and Band. COR! They sounded FANTASTIC, like a massive wall of SOUND somehow being created by just four people, most of whom looked like they had bought guitars several sizes too big for them. I am sure I am not the only person in the audience who felt a) OLD b) somehow PROUD to be watching this very young group of people very very assuredly pulling off an incredible SOUND from a standard two guitars, bass and drums line-up. IN MY DAY an indie band like that would have made a scratchy clatter with someone bellowing over the top, but here it was INTRICATE and WONDERFUL and also full of PROPER SINGING.

Also also, the songs were GRATE, especially the ones from "Lucky Now" which I hadn't liked QUITE as much as the first album (YES I AM THAT INDIE) but now sat happily amongst the rest of the OUVRE, although "Gay Space Cadets" is still THE BEST, OBVS.

Afterwards I had several random chats with other people of a similar vintage, including delightfully on the train home, about how BRILLIANT it had been, with a number of these conversations including the observation that they reminded us of loads of different things, but were also a NEW thing as well. It was an audience of people who were very happy to have seen something so exciting and ACE, but who would all probably be regretting the BEERS in the morning at their Responsible Grown-Up Jobs - at time of writing I am definitely one of them!

posted 20/4/2026 by MJ Hibbett

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