For a band who have yet to release an album, it feels like we've got to know Haim very well indeed. We know, for instance, that the eldest Haim sister – loose-cannon bassist Este – will probably bring pop's most alarming "bass face" to this second of two London gigs this week, a gurn so hypnotic it often threatens to upstage her outstanding musicianship.
We know too that Este will cut hecklers down to size with wisecracks ("You gotta wine me and dine me before you do that," she huffs at one point). Her sisters – keyboard-playing rhythm guitarist Alana and singing guitarist Danielle – will roll their eyes indulgently. When the garrulous ethnomusicology graduate demands a piggy-back ride from a security guard, while Danielle tries in vain to prise Este's bass from her, everyone's ticket is paid for. When she stage-dives at the end of the set she does it like a considerate pro, removing her boots beforehand.
Haim have only been around a year and a bit, but it feels like, well, Forever – the title of their early EP. With its release in February 2012, the UK indulged in one of its regular taste-making crushes on this LA band of "three sisters and one mister" (that's drummer Dash Hutton, who is reminded by the full-band Brazilian drumming workout at the end of most Haim gigs that this talented drummer is, probably, the least talented drummer in Haim).
Like Kings of Leon, the Strokes and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs before them, Haim were adopted here early, signing to UK label Polydor in June last year. Much of the band's banter tonight consists of gushing thanks, and how they consider London "home" now. They opened for Mumford & Sons in the States last summer, supported Florence and the Machine on her arena tour here last winter, won the BBC's Sound of 2013 poll, and cropped up on Later… with Jools Holland. Reams of fawning press have followed in their slipstream, with writers in thrall to the band's west coast rock layered with the tricksy vocal harmonies of R&B.
Those unlikely sun-kissed R&B fusions remain the most lethal weapons in their armoury. Better Off and Forever bookend the band's hour-long set, tense and inventive but breezy too. Growing ever more confident, Danielle is now a master of the clipped urban headshake; her muttered "c'mon"s are some of the finest R&B interjections this side of Pharrell Williams.
As Haim's lengthy charm offensive has been waged, the release date for their debut album has retreated further into the mist. This short run of live dates was rescheduled from April, a manoeuvre necessary to get some songs in the can. In interviews the sisters have blamed perfectionism, coupled with an innate inability to meet deadlines. The latest word is that the album is all recorded and awaiting final tweaks; Paul Epworth (Adele) and James Ford (Florence and the Machine) are two of the producer names who have been linked with the as-yet untitled LP. Those finishing touches will happen – somehow – while Haim are supporting Rihanna in Europe throughout June and July, with pit-stops at Glastonbury and too many European festivals to count. It feels like an autumn release date is nigh.
Our fond familiarity with Haim isn't a problem exactly – the sisters' mixture of chutzpah and technique (they can play the hell out of anything) invites repeated immersions. But – frustratingly – they don't really debut any new songs tonight. A great many of the tracks destined for their album are already out in the wild, as uploads or YouTube videos; the really new songs are presumably still being kept close to their chests. Mid-set, Send Me Down feels fresh, though. This intense R&B/pop tune with complex percussion, big, Florence-like drums and a canny "oh way oh" chorus surfaced on the internet last November. It sticks out like a single.
Perhaps their most conventional vote-winner tonight, Don't Save Me, actually was a single last December, melting Springsteen into the Pretenders. There's their regular, masterful cover of Fleetwood Mac's Oh Well, a tune that showcases (especially) Danielle's attitudinous guitar-playing. It's all good; it's nothing new. The wait, then, continues.
