WHITE ROOM + UNDERWATER BOYS + METHOD ACTRESS – PATTERNS, BRIGHTON 15.3.18
Brighton based 5-piece White Room are likely to progress very far, based on tonight’s appearance at Patterns.
The psych rock/experimental band are made up of Jake Smallwood (Vocals), Jacob Newman (Guitar), Tristan Sava (Guitar/keys), Josie McNamara (Bass) and Hen Sava (Drums). Last year they toured with none other than Paul Weller and he too rates them highly as he said “they just get better and better, and ‘Twisted Celebration’ is one of the best things they’ve done so far”.
It’s not just myself and Paul Weller that are flying the White Room flag, for example DIY Magazine think that “It’ll sweep you off your feet and into a psychedelic vortex” and Clash Magazine believe the band make “Superb psychedelic pop music with a touch of dirt under it’s fingernails”, whereas Wonderland Magazine have really gone to town by claiming that White Room are “Your new favourite Rock’n’Roll band”.
At the back end of last year, 1st December to be precise, White Room released an 8-track double EP on vinyl and download called ‘Eight’ – the number of infinity. Eight signifies positivity in the universe, joy, strength, balance and power in unity. Given the current social and political climate of the world and the uncertainty we all live with, whoever you are, wherever you are, everybody needs a way to break away from it all, even if only momentarily. These are songs of invitation to escape, speaking of other places, to whatever or wherever your personal utopia may be.
This evening’s ‘invitation to escape’ at Patterns and tomorrows Moth Club outing in London are the bands biggest concerts to date and they seem to be massing quite a following, mainly from the in-the-know student fraternity.
The Patterns punters witnessed that singer Jake was well on form, climbing on top of the crowd barriers several times and even going for a surf near the end of their 13 song set, with the only casualty being his tamborine. It reminded me of some bloke called Bono at the Top Rank Suite in Brighton back in the 1980’s when he was climbing all over the stage and even up the the top floor. I think his band were called U2, you might remember them, I hear that they have done rather well. Maybe White Room are chasing in their footsteps?
The crowd were certainly larging it tonight during the White Room performance, I suspect that quite a number of them might have even stayed on for the club night afterwards too. The atmosphere was one of abundant joy and that’s the vibe that Jake and his chums were certainly giving off. Strangely at certain points during their set, they reminded me of Ron and Russell Mael’s Sparks. They look nothing like them at all, but there was just something in the music that somehow gave a nod to them. White Room’s music in general is an unusual blend of styles and it sure does seem to work.
Personally I am rather partial to their ‘Stole The I.V.’ track, which thankfully got an airing tonight as well as their new release ‘Twisted Celebration’, the accompanying video was filmed on the Victorian era carousel on Brighton seafront. Another highlight from their set was ‘Circles’ which to me had a definite Horrors meets The Beatles feeling to it.
Yep, love to see these guys live again!
Tonight’s White Room setlist reads: ‘Take Me Away’, ‘5/3 Interlude’, ‘Tomorrow Always Knew’, ‘Interlude’, ‘Stole The I.V.’, ‘Shoot’, ‘Interlude’, ‘Twisted Celebration’, ‘Cannibal Song’, ‘Red White Stripes’, ‘Circles’, ‘Bleeding’, ‘Cable-Built Dreamland’ (encore) ‘You’ll See’, ‘The Blue’.
More details on the band click here:
http://www.whiteroomhq.com/
https://soundcloud.com/whiteroomhq
https://www.facebook.com/whiteroomhq/
White Room had two support bands this evening, the first up was Method Actress.
Method Actress are Milo (guitar/vocals), Maurice (guitar/synth), Len (drums) and Kit (bass) and they hail from Brighton and their sound is best described as dreamy shoegaze. Milo and Maurice were formally in Morning Smoke, but decided to move onto newer sounds, although thankfully you still get a fantastic serving of Milo’s Robert Smith (The Cure)/ James New (Mirrors) style vocals.
Tonight they performed seven superb numbers that included their debut single ‘Mistress’ and the fantastic ‘Point Of View’, both of which can be heard here: https://soundcloud.com/methodactress and to find out more, visit their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/methodactress.
The full Method Actress setlist was:
‘Private View’, ‘Certain Kind Of Darkness’, ‘Mistress’, ‘Stairways’, ‘Ema’, ‘Point Of View’, ‘Fall’
Immediately after their Patterns set, Method Actress then legged it along the coast road to play live with Beach Tape at The Globe’s last ever concert – blimey, the boys are dedicated to their music!
Next up on stage were the Underwater Boys, who are basically Nick and Tom Klar with the assistance of three mates on the stage to bolster their live performances. To be honest, for once, I wasn’t really sure what to make of their music, so maybe you can decide yourselves by having a listen (and if you like it purchase) their ‘Everyone You Know’ 7” single here: https://underwaterboys.bandcamp.com/
