Nadja
Bardens, London
22 March 2009
Having missed Nadja in 2008 I was on a mission to get to Bardens in Dalston. Despite the whole of East London being inexplicably gridlocked this particular Sunday evening, I wasn’t going to miss Nadja a second time. Fighting my way through the traffic was worth it, Nadja were awesome.
Standing either side of a table of effects pedals, Aidan Baker and Leah Buckareff laid down a serious wall of drone, a perfect buzzing fusion of doom and shoegaze. Nadja began fairly quietly and throughout the performance 
gradually became louder until they had reached totally epic proportions: huge walls of fuzz, massive bass, shimmering loops, bowed strings, murmured vocals, and a drum machine in the background fighting to be heard. Along the way a slow sludgy buzzy cover “The Sun Always Shines on TV” by A-ha was dropped into the performance, part of their forthcoming album of covers which includes A-ha, Slayer, and My Bloody Valentine. For an short (by Nadja’s standards) encore they played “Long Dark Twenties” (a reference to Canadian TV comedy show The Kids in the Hall). I stood in front of the speakers for the encore fully expecting to be deafened. It would have been worth it, but I came away with my ears intact … Bardens isn’t massive, the PA isn’t that loud, but it helped to create a really nice intimate atmosphere for the Nadja performance.
I was right not to want to miss this gig. Nadja are a superb live act.
