Words by Chris Kuzmicki and James McLarnon.
The singer-songwriter idiom has been round since time immemorial. How to do something a bit different? Well, O. Chapman makes the ballsy move of playing in the GDS bar itself and has the audience sit on the floor. It immediately alleviates the stress of the first set of the day. As he’s playing over the speaker system his voice is coming from all directions and evokes the feeling of being tucked in to bed by fancy effects pedals. (CK)
There is a sudden feeling of being at a BIMM end of term gig for Rainslicker. Frusciante chops, on-stage air guitar, lyrics like “turn it up and write a song about it” and key changes Westlife would find a bit noticeable. It’s not our place to make value judgments about bands. But you can if you want. (CK)
The frontman of Morning Smoke may be the most ‘2014’ looking person in Brighton right now. Reid brothers regalia, Danelectro and a head of hair with a mouth nudging out. MS are noticeably the first big murderous rock band today. Opener sounds like the fast song you get on nineties Sonic Youth albums. Tame Impala looms heavily but there is a general meatiness going on that steers them into their own territory. And other bands take note, that is a bass player. (CK)
There is a somewhat surprising set of food pun based covers from – get ready for it – The Food Fighters in the smoking area. It’s a horrible idea but they are charming enough to carry it off. You’d have to be pretty oblivious to ignore two cowboys standing on a table singing about cheese.
Pink Lizards are a seedy sordid and debased blues-rawk band. That is what they do. That is in fact all they do, and they are very good at it. Take it or leave it motherfuckers. (CK)
You can make a bass sound like a guitar but you can’t get a decent low-end out a six-sting. Skirts know this. They also know their rock onions: super-colossal riffs, songs called ‘Fuck All Night’ and those drums. They wear their influences on their sleeves, there is a plundering of The Stooges ‘No Fun’, and then they throw sweets at the audience. Pretty good. The general consensus was that they are better than Royal Blood. How about that? (CK)
