Tuesday 21 April 2015

GIG REVIEW: Beach Baby - Sebright Arms, 16th April

for fans of: The Maccabees, Alvvays, Oscar, Cherry Glazerr, Dog Is Dead

The Sebright Arms is an awkward venue. Deep in a pub basement, it attracts clusters of shouty people who are either transfixed or completely unengaged with the music.

What was even more awkward was the joke made by Honey Moon about how they've come all the way from London. No one in the basement of Shoreditch pub laughs, but I thought it was kind of funny. Clad in Mac Demarco flat hats and baggy shirts along with a member who resembles Reid from Criminal Minds, the opening set from this foetal (i.e. they formed in 2015) band is finished in a flash. In all fairness, they probably performed the only four songs they've written: songs about girls and the weather. Yet what they showcase is truly excellent: crafted hippy licks and dips and psychedelic melodies performed not entirely like amateurs but with a whimsical sort of air. Unfortunately, Honey Moon performed for about 20-30 people in the 150+ capacity venue but they are seriously ones to keep on your radar.

Between sets, the crowd grew steadily as a seemingly seamless string of people fed into the crowd. Soon the Sebright Arms was even more awkward - packed and stuffy, drawing in an odd mix of people, and not a bar of phone service in sight.

When Goldsmith University's Beach Baby took to the stage, they were met with a surprising amount of adoration - an unforeseen reaction because they've only released two songs... out of the five or six they already have. Nonetheless, either they have exceedingly impassioned fans, intensely proud family members or, the more likely scenario seeing as this is Britain, everyone was a jolly drunk - everything Beach Baby did was met with rapturous applause.

Fresh off Jungle's European tour and splashing into their first ever London headline show, Beach Baby are a bit of a mix-match - nothing quite fits yet. Blissful percussion beats were met with shredding guitars, and complimentary vocals from two lead singers with questionable fashion choices (like, board shorts????). The traditionally subtle debut single Ladybird was excitingly brash and fierce - totally different to the studio recording. Long gone were acoustic rumblings and vocal mumblings; in it's place were frantic guitars and exasperated vocals. If the crowd was young enough, there might have even been a mosh pit.

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