Live
Creeping Jean + Honeyshake + The Rapports
The Hope & Ruin, Brighton
March 3 2018
Words/Pictures: Steve Willcox
This Feeling have put on an interesting range of acts tonight on this rain-sodden evening. However, due to Storm Emma and her snowy cohorts, thus was not quite the original bill as planned with two of the acts, Surrenders and The Orders, being forced to pull out due to the adverse weather conditions.
Luckily, Brighton band The Rapports were able to step in at the last minute. Having seen these four guys play at smaller venues in town and dismissed them, on the larger Hope and Ruin stage in front of a fair sized crowd, they came into their own.
They shone out with clear vocals and un-muffled guitars. Tom Skilton’s lyrical skill is evident and the band have a similar style to The Strokes with their indie garage vibe. Bass player Todd Cowell managed to bring some nifty dance moves into the fray as well as some pounding deep notes, while new drummer Symon Minter was on point. ‘Wannabe’ - not a Spice Girls cover - was one of the set standouts in an overall enjoyable set.
Honeyshake are another Brighton local act. The trio's style is a smorgasbord of darker 70s rock and 80s rock pop, but the crowd seem to enjoy it and that’s what counts. Harry Caiger’s voice has good range and the band are technically gifted, with some great slow basslines in ‘Overdrive’, and Chris Issak's ‘Wicked Game’ incorporated into the guitar section in ‘Rhythm and Blues’. Set closer ‘Never Again’ was a glimpse of what they should be, with a distinct voice and originality, but I was left feeling strangely that I hadn't quite grasped where this particular band are coming from.
Creeping Jean, completing the three Brighton band line-up, have been steadily creeping into music aficionados' consciousness over the last months. Tonight Oliver Tooze’s smooth vocal delivery and Joe Haberfield’s hypnotic 60s style keys in guise of early Doors, Deep Purple and Inspiral Carpets, are given a chance to show their metal.
The band already have a pretty heavy fanbase, and there's a fair of them ready to rock here tonight. They start with ‘Mojo Moment’ which shows the crowd they mean business, exhibiting some great melodic riffs which soon gets dancing erupting in the aisles. ‘Honey In The Sun’ with its happy upbeat melody that’s perfect for an open top car and had the crowd shouting back the lines “Oh Yeah!” followed with latest single ‘Stick Around Me’ also bringing out the vocal half of the room to join in. The chorus and melody of this number have work their way into my head despite not having heard it before - the sign of a good song for sure.
‘Suity Fruity’ is another rollercoaster number which went faster as it continued with peaks and troughs throughout, while set closer ‘White Tambourine’, with its 60s key’s intro and guitar based melody, really brought Oliver’s vocals to the fore as the lyrics tell a story of optimism and enjoying life. Which rather sums up Creeping Jean, for this band I feel has that ability to convey those feelings in the listener, and to quote a line from them, “the good time's coming” - which will be undoubtedly be sooner, rather than later for them.
No comments:
Post a Comment