This show was part of Club Brat's tour promoting the bands latest EP 4 Songs, that as it was taking place during Freshers week really should have been at ULU or LSE or another London student venue that this line-up should be perfect for, with three young bands, two of whom should be able to get large followings of young fans.
First on were Modern People who are a 4-piece shoegaze band with a slight gothic twist who opened with Fall Into My Arms that was a little bit Mazzy Star a little bit Lush with the front woman adding some psychedelic twists on guitar as she sang. Precious was a flanged guitar declaration of love and lust with good interplay between the two guitarists.
The singer switched to Acoustic guitar before Into The Morning a song about the morning after a messy night before, can you escape before the awkward conversations start, like what was your name, all built around a sold bassline and delicate acoustic guitar. I think the next song about Sally was heartfelt and saw the drummer getting deeper into her goth drum patterns, before they closed with Jesus Film Hoax that had some cool goth shoegaze twists to it. Modern People have plenty of potential if they play enough shows and get more of a clear identity and an easy to find social media presence.
Next on were Pedestrian who lived up to the name being a very Pedestrian indie trio, with indistinct vocals and rather bland guitar, the bass and drums were doing all the hard work, with Show Me The Signs being built around the lead bass with the guitar being more Rhythm than lead. They didn't introduce hardly any of the songs, so with unclear vocals I have no idea what the songs were, and had forgotten them shortly after the set finished, About the only song to stand out was the closing number when the drummer sang Explode it seemed to have more force to it. Pedestrian need a lot of work if they are going to become well known.
After the break it was my second chance to see Club Brat live, after their impressive opening set for Split Dogs earlier in the year. They did a line check to Groove Armada's I See You Baby that got lots of us grinning. When they started properly, propelled into action by Carys Williams monstrous bassline into Handsome with the Nikola Mitsev's drums in total sync, they had heaps of energy bursting out of them, They dived back into I Want You Baby as part of the intro to Pop Culture that allowed Issac McCormick to really declaim the lyrics at warp speed, while getting totally into how powerful they sounded.
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They went totally Old Skool with interlocking guitars as Joe Smith and Brad Stringer did battle to really drill that riff into our brains, while Carys bassline drove this beast along. In War seemed in tune with the madness of our times, it was driven, dark intensely tight and taut, Issac was still trying to find something Funny in everything currently going down, it might have been in the clashing guitar and overdriven bass, or just the joy at the magnificent racket they were making.
They delved into the pain of modern living on Jesus Hymn that asked plaintive question, would Jesus really support the people who currently claim to follow him? The arguments being split apart one incisive drum beat at a time. Be careful what you say because at any one time you've probably got 25 Cam's on you, it's the way in our modern times, the street preaching vocals ranting away at the madness of it all. What does Money mean or what is it, in this digital age deep in the maelstrom of guitars and bass some truth might seep out. Club Brat suffer from Uncontrollable Urges like most of us do, only there's are driven on by that sensually solid bassline and the grins from the band at how taut it all sounds.
They closed this super tight set with Watch that had an angry edge to the way Issac bellowed you're better off dead at us, like the 2020's have got to be overwhelming and you need removing from the playing field, with a dirty great false ending and one last guitar attack this showed that Club Brat are quickly becoming a force to be reckoned with and need to be seen live if possible.
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