Live
This Feeling Big In 2020
Various artists
Nambucca, London
January 11 2020
Words/Pictures: Anna Smith
It’s that time of year again; the annual pilgrimage to Nambucca to witness the best of the best that the new gen has to offer us each year. This Feeling ‘Big In’ has become not just a tradition, but a necessity - you would be nothing short of insane to miss it.
And with the bill looking more like a mini festival than a big standard gig, you were certainly going to get your money's worth.
Village Bully kicks off the night at the north London venue, easing the already growing crowd in to the long night ahead with her shimmery, folk-esque tracks. A welcome moment of calm before the storm from Paige Janey's - lead singer of Echo Beach! - solo project.
Energetic, punk rock n rollers The Gulps hit the stage with their more raucous mix, bringing the tone up a notch and getting the crowd shaken up before Kid Violet, London’s ‘local indie sweethearts’. Perpetually angry looking and riled-up, the five-piece bring their energy and calculated presence to the room, smashing through songs like ‘I Don’t Care’ and their recent release ‘Sex on Drugs’. Musically the songs get lost in the line up, but frontman Billy Cotter’s electric energy pulls the crowd back in to the performance.
Continuing the London theme, RIC are next in the slew of music, blistering their way through a more groove, indie laden set of songs. Debut single ‘Her Type of Guy’ wouldn’t sound out of place on a Kooks EP, with glistening guitar and crips, juvenile lyrics about girls and hopelessness, two subjects often breached hand-in-hand.
Sadly, no Glossii on as billed - as they've split up. The three girls who comprise the indie punk band Cruel Hearts Club, on the other hand, provided what host and TF head honcho Mike Jonns describes as "an amazing, dirty synth-driven rock 'n' roll set", which about sums it up.
You’d be forgiven for thinking Slaves were up next, with The Dead Freights punchy baselines harking heavily back to the punk duo. The Southampton-based four-piece, however, take a more melodic approach to the pensive, jagged bassline, with a James Bond style smoothness to undercut the power of the bass. Passing a bottle of rum back and forth between them on stage and drenched in eye makeup and body sweat, these boys are a glimmer of the dwindling rock’n’roll arrogance that came to define so many decades of music.
Complete with their very own set of TVs, Brum's finest Ivory Wave slide in to the spotlight with shiny, clean-cut tunes like ‘Separate Beat’ and ‘Uptown’. Emanating a slightly more radio friendly version of This Feeling graduates The Shimmer Band, ‘Weigh Me Down’ sounds like a three-way lovechild of Smash Mouth, Kasabian and Liam Gallagher. It’s easy to see why these boys have pinned down support slots with The Sherlocks with their glossy Brit-pop anthems.
Topping the bill is Northern four-piece The K’s, rounding off the night with their fuzzy pop formula wrapped up by Jamie Boyle’s honey-like vocals. The band are definitely the most polished of the night, performing to the crowd as if they were the messiah himself sent down from indie heaven (Earlestown, apparently), with the crowd reciprocating the notion.
With alumni like Catfish and the Bottlemen and The Blinders, it’s no surprise This Feeling has built a reputation as the prophetic eyes and the ears of the industry, so you would be well advised to check out tonight's budding big ones when they next hit a town near you.
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