Coolio
Belgium may not be considered a hot bed of the music scene but there are signs that this may about to change. Playing at London's Proud Galleries as a warm up to their appearance at The Great Escape Festival was one of those bands who are putting Belgium on the map, School Is Cool.
School Is Cool are a multi instrument five piece right out of the Arcade Fire mould with the talent to match too. Front man Johannes Genard playfully introduces the band as being from Belgium "Which everyone knows is the coolest country. Fact", before the band kicks off into opener The World Is Going To End Tonight.
Despite being pretty much unknown to the vast majority in attendance, the crowd soon were taking interest and being seduced by the music. Whether this was from the sheer quality and variation of musical skills of all the band members or whether it was Andrew Van Ostade's dancing skills, especially his robotic dancing, I am not sure. Personally I was amazed by both.
Musically and lyrically School Is Cool is right up there. They performed perfectly as a unit and one can only be impressed at the number of instruments Nele Paelinck used throughout the all too short set. Highlights have to include the mind blowing finale to (Entropology) which involved all band members drumming in unison.
It is fair to say that a band that a band like School Is Cool deserve to be playing to far bigger audiences than they did at Proud Galleries, they do in Belgium and there is no doubt once people realise Belgium can be cool, they will here too. Debut album Entropology is now out in the UK and comes highly recommended.