Big Hand

The Big Hand are a four piece, half of which hails from Scotland and the other from London. The band claim to have invented a genre called “Zorbic Ska” perhaps the best description of which is ‘Indie with a healthy dose of Manu Chao influenced reggae.’

As they enter the stage tonight the atmosphere picks up and the crowd start to buzz. They seem to have a healthy following of loyal fans/supporters (of whom I ran into several at the bar who could do little but sing their praise and didn’t seem to talk about much else). Before the band even make a noise songs requests are being shouted out from every corner.

The difference between this band and most ska bands is apparent as soon as they come on stage, they don’t use the normal horns section and in fact the only brass instrument they have is a lone trumpet, the band otherwise consisting of the standard guitar, bass and drums setup. Another interesting feature of the big hand is they have two vocalists, of which one the drummer making them even more unique.

They kick into their first song, Oh No, the name of the song and the opposite of my reaction. It’s a total storm, the whole crowd is up and dancing; the venue is quite small and the crowd isn’t massive but the energy produced could probably power most of London tonight. The band are playing their “Zorbic Ska” to a perfection and I got lashed by several flying dreadlocks from the skankers down the front.

People talk about the energy that the Artic Monkeys unleash but I think that The Big Hand if not equal then exceed this. People leaving the venue at the end of the night were soaked with sweat from the constant jumping, skanking and shouting. This band may well be the antidote for the overweight generation with around an hour of constant frantic exercise.

There are few bands I’ve seen getting the whole crowd going as much as they have. They are on a par with The Go! Team for energy and the Prodigy for getting everyone dancing. I don’t think I saw anyone all night that wasn’t moving to the beat in some sort of way either just tapping there feat or fully jumping around for the whole set down the front.

The best way to sum up this show is probably by what a guy I met at the bar before the show said. I met this guy and he asked me what The Big Hand were like because he was apparently trying to get away from ‘the missus’ and had decided to go and see a random band. He seemed a bit apprehensive when I said they were ska but I bumped into him again at the end of the night and his words were just “blimey, they were good.” He went on to say he was going to try and get back to see them again as soon as possible. I guess his reaction sums up this appeal of this band. There immediate grab and hold. A good night was had by all (and a good night’s sleep after all that dancing).

Set List:-
Oh No
Magnet
MOTP (i'm the only)
Trumpet
Spanish
Light Brigade
Hold Me Up
Shameful
Johnny the Chef
Shoot Down the Crows
Sound of the strange
Let it Out
Waltz
Russian Song

FUTURE GIGS

sorry, we currently have no gigs listed for this act.