The Bots landed at the intimate yet awesome Ramsgate Music Hall for the second to last UK show on their European tour. It’s not the first UK tour for The Bots as they supported Blur back in 2012. This time round a few years older and a lot wiser, but yet still significantly young to the game being in their mid to late teens, brothers Mikaiah and Anaiah Lei have not only matured in to a very multi-talented duo, but they have also staggeringly improved and progressed as individuals. It is an equally beautiful yet humbling sight to see, and this is genuinely shown by their receptive humbleness and respectful demeanour and appreciation to the audience here tonight.
Playing a musically diverse yet frantic set full of old and new material, the brothers show just how much they have flourished in to two very talented young songwriters. Their latest material from the critically acclaimed debut album Pink Palms really comes to life in the live environment – whether it be the Lenny Kravitz influenced groove of ‘Blinded’, the almost Arctic Monkeys like indie punk chaos of ‘All I Really Want’, or even the epic balladry of ‘Side Effects’, The Bots are further exploring and transcribing their musical languages and influences to a greater audience every time. There is even a cheeky cover of Ramones ‘I Wanna Be Well’ too for good measure!
Frontman Mikaiah channels an almost Jimi Hendrix like stage presence and loses himself in the occasional moment of improvisational brilliance, whilst younger brother and drummer Anaiah’s drum playing is so hard hitting that several sticks turn in to wooden shards plastered all over the stage – a feature that I am sure other notoriously hard hitting drummers like Dave Grohl would certainly approve of. Whilst there was a couple of minor hiccups with some feedback and a couple of offbeats, the improvisation and showmanship more than made up for any flaws shown tonight.
The Bots are a truly fascinating and pending success story in the making. In a few years from now, both musicians are going to potentially be household names. Already with an impressive succession of support tours previously played and coming up this year (notably with Deftones and Incubus), these guys have more than enough ammo in their arsenal to shoot their way in to the hearts of a variety of mainstream and underground musical cultures worldwide – and for this you should pay extremely close attention!
