Abandon Silence Presents Mosca, Ben Pearce, and Last Magpie, Kazimer Liverpool

Abandon Silence hosted a top, sold-out night last Friday in the Kazimier, Liverpool which doubled as a launch party for Croatia’s Dimensions Festival. It was absolutely chokka with students, keen to celebrate the end of exams and the buzz around the night saw it take a good twenty minutes just to make it through the queue inside.

The venue’s an intimate theatre with a balcony surrounding the perimeter like a miniaturised KOKO. Purp & Soul frontman,  Ben Pearce led the pack, steadily building, dropping in some hip-hop here and there for an eclectic performance.  It absolutely went off on the intorduction of his new single, ‘What I Might Do’ and if this crowds reaction is anything to go by then theis may be setting off many a dance floor as the mercury begins to rise. Lights and fog flooded the air as the crowd pulsed and cheered with such an irrepressible frenzy.

Mosca took up the rear, dropping the pace to a steady vibe with beaming basslines and building a sense of anticipation via soulful vocals sporadically interspersed throughout his set.  A Whitney Houston number even found itself in the mix via a sample of her chart hit ‘It’s Not Right, But It’s Okay’. His coined ‘dubstep-not-dubstep’ style set the scene for an air of side-stepping determination. Looking up, the balconies became a strange vision of hundreds of  entangled arms, reaching over each other in praise. For this writer the highlight of his performance was the amount of reggaeton he threw in towards the end- much appreciated Mr. Mosca! 

Last Magpie aptly took the finale. His set was largely calming, but charming chords slid and resounded through your core nonetheless.  I was surprised to see Kate Bush’s voice make its way in but after all he is known as the Last Magpie due to his eclectic track selection and abilty to extact suitable music from the most unlikely of sources and everyone and their mother appreciated his choice of George Fitzgerald’s ‘Child’. All the while this was going on inside, the fairy-light lit garden also played host to Selective Hearing DJs and appreciative smokers. Unfortunately this was only first Abandon Silence that I’ve been able to make it to, but I know it’ll be the first of many. Easily one of the best nights Liverpool has to offer right now. Make your way down!