Kicking off the Big Cheese Tour was Allusondrugs [6/10] who, despite the somewhat drunken ramblings of their Kurt Cobain lookalike lead singer, put on a blisteringly loud set. Their music was a hard-to-pin-down blend of grunge, rock and weird psychedelic riffing, which had it been performed later when the room was more filled would have incited at least a small well-deserved moshpit. As it was, there was some polite nodding of heads and tapping of feet, however it seemed like it was too much too soon for an audience who were still mostly at the bar getting their pints in. However these guys are doing their own headline tour later on this month with support from Lyger who are also excellent, so definitely check them out then.
Next up were Lonely The Brave [5/10], who only released their debut album the previous month. Their performance, however, was a rather disappointing one in part due to very little crowd interaction and a lack of a connection between singer David Jakes and the crowd, as he proceeded to stand side-face to the audience for the whole set. It is indeed a shame as their sound was solid throughout the set, and they are a band moving on to big things. However, it’s very difficult to get into a performance which was stagnated by the lack of movement on stage (apart from guitarist Mark Trotter who showed sheer enthusiasm and pretty much sang along to every word himself).
There was no doubt though that the partisan crowd were hyped for one band and one band only; headliners Marmozets [9/10] took to the stage in a blaze of glory following the release of their debut album The Weird And Wonderful Marmozets. Kicking off their set with the opening song off the album ‘Born Young And Free’, the crowd instantly sprung into life, feeding off the infectious positive energy and passion of frontwoman Becca Macintyre, who was visibly taken aback by the support. As the temperature in the room rose, the performance levels rose with it, reeling off album tracks such as ‘Particle’ and ‘Is It Horrible’, all of which were delivered with great aplomb, and I was amazed at how devoted the crowd were to the band that they had already learned every word to every song.
At one point in the set, Becca stopped to give a shout out to a young kid she had spotted standing near the soundboard, with the kid being sat on his father’s shoulders for the entirety of the gig, and encouraged the room to applaud the effort (to which everyone duly obliged). Previously released singles ‘Captivate You’ and ‘Move, Shake, Hide’ received a rousing reception as expected, with the latter the penultimate song of the set, leading into a sweaty and energetic rendition of ‘Vibetech’, with members of of the crowd on the periphery getting involved.
Marmozets have been going from strength to strength, releasing single ‘Born Young & Free’ last year, and immediately launching into several support and subsequently sold-out headline tours when their amazing debut album was released, and later this month they are off to the US to tour with Issues and I Killed the Prom Queen. We insist that you go and see this rapidly rising band – like their sound, they are going to be massive.
