Live (Online) Part 2
Sucker Music Week Festival
Various venues
July 6 - 12 2020
Reporting team: Izzy Butler, Steve Willcox
Continuing with our coverage of last week's online music festival.
Wednesday
Waiting patiently for South-East London’s Bugeye due to technical difficulties, but its worth the delay, as it’s a full band line-up and feels like a proper gig. Starting with ‘On and On’ from their debut album (out this week) combines the showmanship of vocalist Angela Martin and the rest of the band's ability to add the extra punch into the tunes. 2018’s ‘Is This Love’ with its synth and guitars noises proves a hit on the virtual dancefloor (comments bar). Drinking song ‘When The Lights Go Out’ ends their set, which makes me crack open a cold beer to calm down! SW
Denio stick a tee-shirt on the wall behind as their backdrop, along with a string of fairy lights and a number of potted plants, as the four-piece come live and direct from a Liverpool lounge. They're light and tuneful, with the keys adding a pleasant note to offset the vast number of acts just employing acoustic guitar. It's head-nodding stuff, and 'Show Me Your Ways' was still going round in my head into the evening. IB
Leeds indie-rock band RAE (ex-Ørmstons ) perform a stripped set for us today, starting with ‘You and I' has singer Jess Huxham on fine form against the Cajon box drum and guitar.
Two Ørmston tracks were delivered well, but latest single ‘Never Meant To Start To Start A Witch Hunt’ comes across great, with the song sounding as equally dark and moody live as on record. ‘Crying On My Own’ provides an emotional end to this riveting set. SW
Kent indie synth-pop boys Apre launch their set with latest single ‘Live It Up', featuring Jules on guitar and Charlie on synth/vocals, delivering soft melodies and mindful lyrics.On 2019’s ‘Come Down’, Charlie picks up the other guitar and as a duo produce a slower and less aggressive sound compared to the single. ‘Everybody Loves You’ and ‘Without Your Love’ both from their second EP ‘Drum Machines Killed Music’ closes their set on a well deserved high. SW
Bugeye
Denio
Apre
Thursday
A lunchtime set from Guildford's alt-rock quartet HYLA gets the day off to a good start for their full band set. Fronted by Vicky Holburt, they get in new single 'Dumb' (out July 17), and get a lot of viewer love coming through the ether. They msnage some fancy professional lookimg visual effects snd camera angles too that adds to thrir excitung, edgy appeal. IB
The Motive hail from the South West London/Surrey borders, though they are another act reduced in numbers to one man with his guitar in his bedroom. He covers Bob Marley's 'Is This Love' adequately, and a version of his own band's 'See Between'. IB
Showing how it should be done, ARXX are really quite stunning. The Brighton duo, Hannah Pidduck on vocals and guitar, and Clara Townsend on drums, tone down their usual garage rock raucousness for a more low-key acoustic setting - and turn out to be one of my favourites of the festival. The sound acoustics in the room (a rehearsal space or studio it looked like) are perfect, lending an echo to Hannah's voice as they start with 'Stuck On You' that sounds as good as if you were there with them, and as they finish you want to send a flurry of virtual claps down the line. New songs 'Call Me Crazy' and 'Young and Stupid', where on the former we hear an almost Country style on the vocal inflection backed with steady, head-nodding beats, and the latter a more upbeat affair, both come across well. They manage to achieve a wonderfully full sound for just two of them, and hopefully we get another chance to catch them in this unplugged way again. IB
Elsewhere in Brighton, Orchards pare down to vocalist Lucy Evers and guitarist Sam Rushton, as they perform a selection from their just released debut album 'Lovecore'. It's a little more of a subdued shuw from the normally livewire Lucy, as she has to contain her movements as she sits on the living-room floor to upper body pops. Her voice shines through on numbers like 'Magical Thinking' and album lead single, 'Sincerely Overehelmed', and in a more uncluttered setting, we really see her come through. IB
HYLA
The Motive
ARXX
Orchards
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