REVIEW: 5 Degrees North - Strings 27.8.25

THEY'RE OFF! It's not goodbye though, is it. Not in the teary sense. 5DN are off to pastures new: five degrees east of these waters (aka Brighton) to sample life in a new Monkee house, a new town with lanes and a Primark. 

Perhaps they'll feel like the Yaverland bears did when they were airdropped into their bigger, greener enclosure with clean water to paddle in and better grub to wrestle over. Never mind what's outside that high fence - life in the new perimeters is good.

Outside of the Island, what will be made of these brave young behemoths with quirky, Sabbathy licks and haircuts akin to a montage of 50s, 80s and 90s barber windows? What will an audience unfamiliar with the terminus that is Carvel Lane make of the plaintive song of that weird name? Will it translate?

The answer might lie in Red River - a new song with universal appeal. It plants the same flag in both Islands while measuring out the noodling to the intense, complicated rhythm that is a 5DN thing. Makes you sick. Talented bastardos.

Anyway... tonight was all about a last chance to dance and to heckle. And for the boys to throw their faces through impossible and dangerous geometries one more time. We get them all, in an hour that slipped away like a Gurnard tide - the upside down shark look, the angry dog in a bus window... the "Picasso".

Funny boys. Fare well, like we know you will. And come back somewhen!