Live Review
Breeze + TRASH + Plaza
O2 Institute, Birmingham
March 4 2016
Words/photos: Rosie Mulhern
Breeze, TRASH and Plaza - three young, new bands hitting the indie music scene that you'll soon get used to hearing about. The trio have just completed a UK tour together, finishing in Leeds on Monday. For their Birmingham show tonight, it's a home gig for the headliner, and a bit of a distance for the others.
Kicking the night off was Plaza, a four-piece in their late teens from Hartlepool. A chilled, feel-good indie band with sounds resembling Brum's own Jaws, with a similar tendency and ability to create an energetic, reverb-heavy, upbeat track and the next minute induce your ears with an aura of dreamy blissfulness. 'Fickle' appeared a crowd favourite with a dramatic build-up at the start bursting with shots of summery vibes working up into a hazy pop tune. Latest track 'Totem' with its appealing intro also seems to have won fans prior to tonight.
Confidently making the most of their time on stage, Plaza piled on as much energy as possible in thd short space of their set, with vocalist Bradley Lennard's cap continuously falling off through his vigorous hair swishing and dancing.
The band surprisingly announced that it was their first time in Birmingham midway through their set, which could've gone unnoticed due to these guys successfully managing to make the place feel like their own. The set came to a close with their deceiving track - 'Antumbra' as the beginning would suggest a laid-back tone, however a build-up made itself present bursting into a forceful and unexpected drop with tight drum solos erupting into a break of euphoric infused noise.
Next to take the stage by storm were TRASH, a young emerging quartet from Chesterfield, and one of Little Indie's bands to watch in 2016. Beginning on the mellow note of '81', they soon built up more momentum by changing the pace with '4 Miles'; the fun-fuelled guitar rhythms present within this track and the catchy repetition of "come on", spurred on an already appreciative audience.
Many of their songs possessed the ability to appear optimistic, while hiding a deeper undercurrent to them with the lyrics, such as 'Sad Boys (All I Wanna Do)': the subject matter appearing to be the feelings that come after a break-up, but a fast-paced loop giving it a move-on-your-feet vibe. Likewise, new single the four-minute 'Workout' which meshes catchy indie pop, fierce guitar and driving bass with a lyric that tells of angsty times and the seeking of a cure through an alcohol daze. 'Hot Coffee' - their most listened to track on Soundcloud with an impressive 14k-plus streams - ended their set quite nicely as even the mention of the title of the track from the band caused a reaction from the crowd.
Bringing the night to an impressive close was Birmingham's own four-piece, Breeze - doing their hometown proud, it has to be said. They chose tonight to open up with a song they had not only never performed live before, but was so new it has only just been completed and was still without a title. A brave move, but one that proved itself with its dreamy, yet infectious nature - something that this band seem to have no lack of.
Their contagious, dream-pop tunes such as 'Luna Love Me Good' delivered nothing but positive vibes to the high spirited and impatient crowd; entailing the kind of empowering chorus that will be bouncing off the walls in your head for days on end. The effortless vocals of frontman Paul Baker added a sense of uniqueness to their sound, especially prominent in their glittery surf-pop track 'Bleach'. The band played on relentlessly through the night, so much so that Baker's guitar strap broke halfway through a song.
Breeze topped off the night their cover of Dardude's 'Sandstorm', which may sound unusual but they totally made it work as they put their own spin on the song making it sound like it could have easily come from their own cannon. The crowd's response seemed to fuel the band's energy and stage presence even more with bassist Jorge encouraging fans to come up on stage and Baker throwing his mic with the stand into the crowd mid-song.
Overall, the whole night left you with twinges of euphoria as if summer had come a few months early. Make sure to catch all these three bands live soon.
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