Sometimes we come across a band that we’d love to put on in McChuills, but for various reasons it’s not doable. In those cases, we try not to let boring old logistics stop us though, so if we really love a band, we’ll just do it somewhere else. Another VU & Caroline Dawson are one of those bands. Formed in 2025, the London-based band not only perfectly reproduce the Velvets Underground’s seminal music, but recreate the groundbreaking Exploding Plastic Inevitable shows they performed during their collaboration with Andy Warhol from 1966 to 1967. This is no basic tribute act, with the band investing in vintage instruments, amps and lighting equipment, and even hand-building discontinued items in order to faithfully recreate those pioneering moments in art, music and performance for a modern audience. Inspired by Andy Warhol’s multimedia vision and original EPI lighting designer Danny Williams’ electrical innovations - which were influential to the development of psychedelic light shows, and later disco, rave, and contemporary stage lighting - their light shows consist of manually-controlled strobes (operated in rhythm with the music), as well as coloured spot lamps, aimed at a custom-built reproduction of Warhol’s antique mirror ball, creating orbiting polka dot reflections all around. Additionally, a liquid light show will produce psychedelic convection current visuals against the rear stage wall, alongside slide/moiré projections, and the sole digital element of the show, which is new Another VU film projections (replacing the original 16mm Warhol films of the Velvets). The result is a mesmerising explosion of electrifying sound and kaleidoscopic imagery, just like the original (and now legendary) Exploding Plastic Inevitable. Unless you were there back in the day, you’ve never seen a show like this, so if you love the Velvets as much as we do, you really don’t want to miss this one.

Description supplied by the event organiser.