Live Review: Beach Baby @ Norwich Arts Centre

Words originally for Outline Magazine

L-R: Lawrence Pumfrey, Ollie Pash, Hercules Iraklis, Josh Hodgson 

Tonight’s show marks the best of three for Beach Baby, who previously hit up Norwich alongside Sundara Karma, as well as at Sound & Vision Festival last October. Though they’re far better known now than they were six months ago, the Arts Centre is hardly packed. But with a mostly teenage audience, there’s a buzz of freshness in the air.

Slacker/surf rockers Teen Brains are an act I’ve caught numerous times supporting the likes of Peace and Blossoms, and it’s clear tonight how much their performance has matured with time. They’re slick and groovy, with debut single Annabel standing out as a highlight but also as a clear indicator of just how much the foursome has grown with time.

Main support comes from Babeheaven, a five piece from West London. Their music is quiet but dreamy, a tropical twist running through what could easily drift into depressing territory but delightfully doesn’t. Nancy Anderson fronts, her vocals delicate and innocent over her all male band mates’ instruments. She notes how the audience, “don’t talk between songs… it’s quite nice”, perhaps indicating that people don’t normally listen at their shows. But Norwich is tentative tonight, and why wouldn’t we be, when this act brings such caramel-golden swirls of downbeat electro pop? With festival season coming up, this band is one to catch – Babeheaven play the Lake Stage at Latitude this July.

Sleeperhead gets Beach Baby’s set underway with a long and furious drum intro before its dizzying guitar melodies engulf the Arts Centre like a summer breeze. Lawrence Pumfrey and Ollie Pash are the fronting half of the quartet, both strutting about the stage casually but focussed intently on their instruments. Pumfrey sports a baseball cap, which he quickly loses for the equally jangly No Mind, No Money. Ad-libs come few and far between, perhaps an indirect response to tonight’s audience who are slightly phased out to begin with. But Lost Soul, “for anyone who’s a little lost in life”, ups the tempo and with it the atmosphere.

Beach Baby are a difficult bunch to pin down, musically. The foursome hardly sit at the dinner table marked ‘punk’, although grungey, DIY undertones do surface occasionally within their performance. Rather, they lean more towards the happy-go-lucky summertime vibes of Britpop, no more so than on Limousine, a Supergrass-esque jam that tonight comes with an extended outro for good measure. Ladybird has a similar vibe, albeit with more solemn lyrics – see the ever bewitching hook, “I don’t want to live for nothing, I don’t want to live”.  

Powder Baby is tonight’s (as of yet unreleased) closer, a short but sweet punch of everything Beach Baby provide: there’s fiery drums courtesy of Josh Hodgson as well as a hazy guitar/keyboard combination that suggests big things are to come for this band. Whether they’re set to make it remains to be seen, but tonight certainly looks like the beginning of a bright future.

Lost Soul by Beach Baby is out now.

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Live Review: Misty Miller @ Norwich Arts Centre

Words originally for Outline Magazine

Misty Miller is a good kid turned bad. She’s a force to be reckoned with, part Ramone, part Thora Birch in Ghostworld, with a bedraggled feminist image and the writing skills most young punks can only dream of. Her new album hit shelves this month, so I headed to Norwich Arts Centre to check out just why The Whole Family is Worried.

Emily Winng supports. A Norwich favourite it seems, but one I’ve never caught live before. Winng fronts, with four accomplices manning various instruments in a mismatchy array that could well be five strangers who met on a bus and decided to start a band. The music is endearingly haphazard, chirpy and jangly with Winng’s bold vocals slicing through the room like a meat cleaver. But gentler. Think Little Comets meets Kate Nash. It’s summery and upbeat, and the revelation that “half the band are drunk” certainly adds to the entertainment.

Misty Miller’s set buzzes from the first song – Happy, a favourite, which starts deceptively slowly before ploughing the tempo up Jamie T Zombie style. There aren’t a lot of us (shame on anyone who went to Bassjam instead of this) but bassist Charlie Elliott rounds us all promptly to the front for Other Girls. It’s breezier than most of Miller’s tracks but still packs a lyrical punch, outing her as a romantic at heart beneath the ripped denim exterior.

A nod to her last visit to Norwich, supporting The Crookes in February, marks one of Miller’s few ad-libs this evening. She’s glad to be here, but for a Saturday night the atmosphere is a little rigid, so three songs come back-to-back with no stopping for breath. Taxi Cab has a bluesy Jake Bugg feel to it, brimming with late night quips from hometown Brixton, and Devil, albeit the slowest part of the show, is one of the highlights. It’s almost The Only Exception by Paramore, but less embarrassing. Girlfriend and Sugar to Me come next, hinting at a classic/punk rock background with fizzing guitars and hold-up-your-lighters choruses.

Iggy Pop is channelled on Lonesome Cowboy, a rumbling ballad, “that we haven’t played for a while”, and Stars holds wisps of Courtney Barnett’s deadpan spirit in amongst its anti-relationship musings. But comparisons aside, Miller is a series talent in her own right, playing phenomenally and delightfully all night long. She ends with Next to You, a riot of screeching riffs and crashing drums, before exiting swiftly besides her three band mates. An unexpected encore comes in the form of a One Direction cover (I did say unexpected) made impressively enjoyable via a punky twist, ending a delicious 45 minutes of semi-organised chaos from a talent I’ll be sure to watch in months to come.

Misty Miller's The Whole Family is Worried is out now. 

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Official Website

In Photos: Emmy the Great @ Norwich Arts Centre

Photos originally for Outline Magazine

All photos and more in high resolution here.

DEMS

EMMY THE GREAT

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Official Website

Live Report: Tigercub @ Norwich Arts Centre

Words originally for DIY Magazine

L-R: Jimi Wheelwright, James Allix, Jamie Hall

It’s the fourth night of the Mapped Out tour presented by DIY and Generator with Tigercub and Bellevue Days; having already played Exeter, Bristol and Stowmarket, tonight’s venue is the Arts Club in Norwich.

Gloomy rockers Bellevue Days have a dark eccentricity about them. Their performance tonight is raw and intimate; a metropolitan Jamie T-like vigour runs through their set, all blank faces and play-it-cools on the crust but bubbling and frenzied beneath. Raw anecdotes about drugs, sex, and the odd car crash are delivered casually, but the hard-hitting lyrics speak for themselves. An endearing charm can be added to their résumé too: besides their gritty songwriting talents, it seems you could easily sit down with each of them for a pint and a storytelling session free of charge. “In amongst the anarchy you’ll find something new”, they howl, on Something New.

As the lights dim, not a split second passes before the echoic hall of Norwich Arts Centre is pounded by the gnarly riffs and beefy bass of headliners Tigercub. Vocalist Jamie Hall orchestrates the chaos; anyone who’s experienced a Tigercub show will be more than familiar with his looming stage presence. Between upbeat quips to his audience, he broods intensely over pedal manoeuvres and delicious, blood-soaked solos under a crimson light. Flanking him, mutton-chopped bandicoot Jimi Wheelwright would look as comfortable starring in a Western as he is a Brighton-based rock band. He prowls around the stage, adding a feral growl to each song. The band’s newer material sounds more scatty and upbeat versus better-known numbers, but a thunderous quality still ties the show together. Few deliver such a refined barrage of anarchy as Tigercub, who, with a debut record in the making, are no doubt set for bigger things.

 Tigercub's Repressed Semantics EP is out now.

Facebook: Tigercub / Bellevue Days

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Live Review: Eagulls @ Norwich Arts Centre

Words originally for Outline Magazine

Leeds five-piece Eagulls are an obscure bunch. Their intense noise-rock music has attracted them widespread media attention and a matching fanbase, and tonight they make what’s shockingly their first visit to Norwich in promotion of upcoming sophomore LP Ullages. It’s my first time seeing them too, and the air is rife with anticipation.

The first act on the four-band bill is 99 Watts. Apparently when he’s on duty, he’s Eagulls driver. Musically, you wouldn’t tell. Performing delicately built up guitar pieces with the help of a keyboard and an impressive pedal assortment, his songs are magical and striking, similar to The xx.

He’s followed by Soyuz Rats, a male duo with a similar guitar/pedal set up. Initially, it sounds very loud, and not very inspiring, but as they progress through their set the technical expertise underneath the roar becomes apparent. Substituting drum sounds with their own crackling guitar feedback, as well as interspersed pre-recordings, it’s impossible to tell which sounds are being created, recreated or simply pressed play on. An alternative and impressive performance.

Third and final support comes from Fear of Men, an indie/electro quartet from Brighton. Frontwoman Jess Weiss emerges wearing a sheet over her head, which seems more amusing than fashionable, and appears vacant and distracted in her stage presence for the most part. Musically, their songs consist of graceful keys and vocals layered over a pounding drumbeat. Despite being the most reserved act performing tonight, they are well received and do a good job at warming the sizeable audience up for our headliner.

Eagulls are billed to start at 10pm, but it’s pushing 10.40 before they ultimately rock up. Norwich doesn’t seem to care and as the thunderous drumming of Lemontrees commences, the buzz from that one extra pint can be felt in the echoing room. The band’s sinister looking iconography is emblazoned on every wall, in the form of huge monochrome flags, over which is broadcast a piece of vintage European cinema. Niche but effective.

Some older tracks follow – Yellow Eyes, Nerve Endings and Hollow Visions, all post-punk fireballs that get mosh pits kicking under frontman George Mitchell’s Cure-like vocals. Some new cuts are diced in too as the group, “test the waters in Norwich.” Bloom sees Mitchell lose his long coat as the tempo is raised, pointing towards a more mature, refined sound from the upcoming album.

But what Eagulls stand out for musically, they lack in performance skills. Granted, the technical goings-on clearly require a hefty amount of concentration, but the band stand static almost exclusively, and even Mitchell’s ad-libs are short and monotonous. Does it add to the cult-like aesthetic of the performance? Somewhat, but by two thirds into the set, it’s clear I’m not the only one losing interest as punters filter out of the crowd gradually.

Tonight demonstrates that Eagulls definitely aren’t for everyone. But for a debut show in a city far from home, they’ve done pretty well. Just don’t expect to see them smashing chart records any time soon.

Eagulls' second LP Ullages is out on May 13th.

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Official Website

Live Review: Declan McKenna @ Norwich Arts Centre

Words originally for Outline Magazine

All photos and more in high resolution here.

Declan McKenna live at Norwich Arts Centre

Declan McKenna is just 17 years old, but has already graced the stage at Norwich Arts Centre as Blossoms’ opening act last October. Since then, he’s supported Foals in Paris, received praise globally and revamped his live show, adding a backing band to what used to be a solo act. Courtesy of Pony Up, I went along to check him out as well as some fine up-and-coming local talent too.

Riot-grrrl rock outfit Peach Club kick things off. Their line-up has gradually expanded from a solo act to a foursome and tonight they sound better than ever. Frontwoman Katie Gilbert’s adlibs come across a little awkward but nerves hardly stifle the message that can only sound strong from ambitious tempo hikes and fiery lyrics like “You don’t like me? / Tough shit, I love me!”

Peach Club live at Norwich Arts Centre

Next, Dazy Crown deliver lo-fi, surf beats, with a sound similar to Mac DeMarco and Courtney Barnett. Intermittent technical issues cause frustration throughout, but frontman Thomas Little’s natural stage presence and warm Canada accent go hand-in-hand with the laidback vibe of his music. His perfect comic timing makes more than the best from a bad situation, and everyone has a great time.

Declan McKenna isn’t even 18 yet, but from the confidence with which he performs tonight, you wouldn’t know it. The only allusion might come from the twinkling fairy lights, which adorn his equipment, bringing an aura of delightful innocence to the room. He opens with Brew, solo, before a guitarist, bassist and drummer join, all as fresh faced as their frontman. From the very start, the elaborate details of this young talent’s music are clear to see (and hear), and there’s no wonder in anyone’s minds as to why he’s been the subject of so much hype.

Basic highlights McKenna’s smooth vocals before the bittersweet Paracetamol shows off the 8-bit, video game audio style that makes his material so compelling. As one of his two singles to date, it also gets the first sing along of the night. An as of yet unreleased “really new song about war and shit”, The Kids Don’t Wanna Go Home, sticks in mind as a positive sign of what’s to come; it’s powerful, it’s danceable and the maturity and nonchalance with which McKenna performs it impresses beyond belief. His irresistible charm and honestly funny quips – including such gems as “it’s so friendly in here! We’re used to having things thrown at us, like live human children” – are refreshingly entertaining.

Set closer/debut single Brazil is met with a wave of enthusiasm from the small but enthusiastic audience. “People actually know it!” he exclaims, before diving into its lush, downbeat melodies. No one is stood still by the end of the night, a deserved reaction to a young talent with a bright future ahead of him.

Paracetamol is out now on download and coloured vinyl.

Facebook: Declan McKenna / Dazy Crown / Peach Club

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