A
very recent discovery for me, this lot: with the “Sword of Damocles” of
potential redundancy hanging over my head earlier this year, I had neither the
financial wherewithal nor the desire to look out for new and intriguing bands.
However, oddly enough, when said redundancy was confirmed, I resolved to play
“catch up” with a bit of my payout, and search out some new listening material.
This particular bunch of young Durham oiks came courtesy of a recommendation
from the esteemed Mr. Stuart “Langers”; I liked what I heard on Youtube, and
promptly picked up their CDs, including current one “Blisters In The Pit Of My
Heart”, finding it an amphetamine-fast rush of joyous and hooky indie pop with
overlays of loud and crunchy powerpop guitar, galloping along on a swelling
tide of bratty call and response male/ female vocals. As if Seafood were a C86
band, or like a Talulah Gosh on US popcore steroids… either way, enough to not
only feature on heavy rotation in the car, but also enough for me to book tix
for this timely Bristol gig!
Andy
Fenton, being familiar with the band through “Indietracks”, was up for this
too, so he picked me up on a sun-drenched Saturday evening for a swift drive
down to the Exchange, finding venue and street parking easily and having a
drink in the beer garden of the Stag And Hounds next door, declining their
invite to join them for their hardcore punk band evening! We then hung around
outside the Exchange after getting our entry wristbands, bumping into Bristol
friends Kiron and Alison before wandering into this weirdly shaped and
early-doors well-attended venue for openers Two White Cranes. A solo girl
vocalist/ guitarist for a couple of numbers (one bolshy Rodney Allen-like
original, and a cover of The Beautiful South’s “Prettiest Eyes”), she was then
joined by her drummer colleague for a swift set of twee, gauche and partly
formed indie/ US 90’s college pop, simple and pleasant enough but chronically
unrehearsed. “Sorry I keep playing the wrong notes,” she remarked after another
bum note, “but it’s part of the charm…” Erm, no, it’s not…
The
Woahnows, up in short order at 9.15, were in no mood to fuck about; kicking
into a wildly pounding and amphetamine fast rocking opener recalling Annie
Christian, this young trio (featuring a replacement bassist called Matt, who
kept announcing, “I’m Phil Randall!”) kicked into overdrive with a snappy set
of Mega City Four/ Senseless Things frantic strumalong pop, often featuring
songs which started fast and got faster! A new number (“Cold” on the set-list,
but featuring a soaring hook of, “best defense/ best of friends”) was easily
their best one, a rampant slice of post-popcore with an anthemic chorus, and
they then brought Dan from Martha onstage for a cover of one of the headliner’s
numbers! Promising stuff overall.
A
swift 20 minute turnaround saw Martha take the stage at 10 in front of a rammed
and enthusiastic sellout young crowd. Three scruffy indie boys and a female
bassist with hot pants and a Minnie Mouse vocal delivery, they were also “on
it” from the outset, guitarist Dan belting into the strident, in your face
opener “Christine” and the equally breathless “Ping”, next up. Said female
bassist Naomi suggested, “the crowd’s well organised in height order, but take
a look around [so everyone can see],” before she took turns at lead vocals for
the chuntering 6th form angst of “1997, Passing In The Hallway”. One
key feature of Martha’s performance, in fact, was that all 4 members took turns
at lead vocals, with Naomi’s vocals flippant and haughtily detached, Dan and
other guitarist Jonathan both echoing the high-pitched, yearning and passionate
vocal delivery of Dashboard Confessional’s Chris Carraba, and even drummer
Nathan getting in on the act. Nathan also featured the best line in song intros
(“this songs about when you’re young, you’re not conservative then you get more
conservative as you get older, then when you’re older still you’re not
conservative at all – what’s that about?” being an entertainingly rambling
example) as well as his utterly judicious bass drum message “I miss EU, I’m
lonely”, echoing Martha’s song of the (almost) same name, the number which in
fact (following my set highlight, a superb penultimate “Curly And Raquel”)
concluded their swift and tremendous 45 minute set of amped-up powerful, tight
and punchy indiepop.
A
couple of equally frantic encores saw a fine performance to a conclusion, and I
briefly congratulated the band on our way out, before a trip home delayed by an
accident right on our M4 junction. Nonetheless, a superb evening out in the
company of a buoyant and hugely promising new band. Good shout, “Langers”!
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