On Friday 2nd May GNOD and White Hills brought the utterly incredible Drop Out collaboration to Bristol’s Strange Brew for a sold out show.

I first caught White Hills live in the early 2010s at the Horseshoe Tavern, Toronto, having a brief chat with Dave White and Ego Sensation—New York’s coolest couple—at the merch table. I can’t recall who else was on the bill that night (I have a feeling Sleepy Sun might’ve been one).

During my time in Canada I saw White Hills a number of times, though can’t remember how many exactly or where all the gigs were. There was definitely at least one gig at Lee’s Palace, and I’m pretty sure The Garrison and I’m likewise confident some venues got played more than once too.

One that definitely sticks in the memory, even if I can’t recall its name: a little pub—like an actual little pub—on Queen Street West where White Hills played on a bill next to King Gizzard and the Wizard Lizard for FREE as part of the Canadian Music Week!

When getting stuck back in the UK thanks to lockdown, it occurred to me there was a handful of much loved bands/artists I’d got used to catching every time they came through Toronto that I might not ever see again; White Hills being very much amongst them.

To be fair, living in Toronto and seeing all the bands in question on a fairly regular basis, I’d never had reason to think about what sort of size tours they did in the UK or if they did any at all. But that was neither here nor there.

It was more about the time during lockdown when it felt like things were never going to be quite the same again, and it was with respects to public gatherings like gigs that things would be most hit, and the most hit of those was going to be at the smaller end of the gig scale for sure.

To say then that I was ‘delighted’ to discover White Hills were coming to Bristol with GNOD . . . I got to have a quick chat with Dave and Ego at the merch table just like the first time way back in the Horseshoe, the show was outstanding, utterly majestic in every possible way; and if all that wasn’t enough, the absolute couldn’t have hoped for more icing on the cake, while I knew from videos that Ego played drums as well as bass, I’d never seen the former in the flesh until the gig in Bristol!

My mind was so blown I totally forgot to upload the footage I took until now!

For more on White Hills check out White Hills: Mitosis; an interpretation

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