Chappaqua Wrestling live from The Close Encounter Club

00:06 - Football
03:35 - Early
08:30 - The Rift

We welcomed Chappaqua Wrestling who have swapped their laidback indie sound for a potent and powerful dose of grunge to The Club.

Speaking about their time at The Club, Chappaqua Wrestling describe it as, “Cosmic, and seriously, seriously fun. The Grand Hall at Battersea Arts Centre is like playing in a Game of Thrones set, it’s so grand and decadent. It was an unbelievable return to playing live after such a long time. The virtual crowd on the screens looking at the stage worked so well from our side, felt exactly like a crowd, if not with a bit more pressure to entertain as they’re just at home rather than with you in the room. Felt like we were part of something really special, being some of the first artists to play a gig during lockdown, everyone working at Close Encounter Club and the venue’s staff did an unreal job to pull it off, will remember this show forever, seriously.”

As with all of the acts that pass through our intergalactic venue, Covid has had a direct impact on the 2020 the band had envisaged, but the quintet have managed to adapt to the pandemic. “It’s meant we’ve written separately for the most part, and that brings a less spontaneous approach to writing initially. Some of the best material written comes from one idea that magically turns to something else from someone else in the room not hearing it right and then it turns into something new. That had mostly gone in the early months, now we’re back to living together though and we can get that back. Lyrically its definitely brought more ideas to the table, but I think the world has changed in the last six months in many ways not even in relation to Covid, so it’s a year full of inspiration.”

And any close encounters of note you’d like to declare, Chappaqua Wrestling? “Jake once ate a toy alien when he was a kid, the ones with the goo on them that came out of a shell, very small. It got stuck in his belly and had his parents have been bigger conspiracy theorists they might have rushed him to A&E to make sure it wasn’t real and burst out of his stomach. Turns out he just digested it in the normal way, or it’s now a part of him. So maybe he’s our own close encounter…”