THYLA + O HELL + BUGGS – THE HOPE & RUIN, BRIGHTON 25.5.22
Tonight’s gig put on by Hidden Herd at The Hope & Ruin was a case of goodbye Thyla, hello O HELL. While it was a farewell performance for Thyla, it was the first live show for O HELL.
Thyla are a three-piece, Brighton based, indie rock band consisting of vocalist Millie Duthie, bassist Dan Hole and drummer Danny Southwell. With former guitarist Mitch Duce leaving the band in 2021, they had a guest guitarist for their final live show. The pregnant Millie joked that “losing the guitarist meant I had to produce new band members”.
The band met while at university in Brighton in 2016, and released three EPs and their self-titled album was released in January. I’ve seen them several times from supporting Fickle Friends and Saltwater Sun to playing St Mary’s Church at the Alternative Escape and Brighton Electric.
Their farewell show was another good performance with their beautifully hypnotic guitar soundscape and Millie’s ethereal vocals. There is an underlying hint of dream-pop to their sound.
As you’d expect, most of their set was from their recently released album, opening with the first track ‘Amber Waits’. The final song of the main part of the set was introduced as “one of the band’s favourites”, ‘Rabbit Hole’, which was a quieter number. There was a very short break, before the band returned to play two older songs, ending on a high with ‘Everything’.
The audience enjoyed the performance and were fully engaged throughout.
Millie did say during the set “We’re not stopping with music, but this is the end of the line for Thyla.” It could be watch this space……
Thyla setlist:
‘Amber Waits’ (from the album ‘Thyla’)
‘Gum’ (from the album ‘Thyla’)
‘Dandelion’ (from the album ‘Thyla’)
‘Echo For Ingrid’ (from the album ‘Thyla’)
‘Flush’ (from the album ‘Thyla’)
‘Kin’ (from the album ‘Thyla’)
‘3’ (from the album ‘Thyla’)
‘December’ (from the EP ‘Everything At Once’)
‘Only Ever’ (from the EP ‘What’s On Your Mind’)
‘Making My Way Through The Skyline’ (from the album ‘Thyla’)
‘Rabbit Hole’ (from the album ‘Thyla’)
(encore)
‘Fade’ (a single release)
‘Everything’ (from the EP ‘Everything At Once’)
O HELL is the new solo project of PROJECTOR’s Lucy Sheehan. Lucy started O HELL during lockdown writing with drum machines and samples. O HELL isn’t the unforgiving grunge guitar sounds and echoes Sonic Youth of PROJECTOR, but a move into electronic music, alt-pop, experimentalism, and dark soundscapes.
For O HELL’s first live performance, Lucy was joined on stage by a keyboard player and Annie from CLT DRP on backing vocals.
Unfortunately, Lucy had lost her voice earlier in the day, which meant she had to cut the set short. The shortened set showed a lot of promise, and while her voice remained it showed Lucy is as comfortable with more dancier electronic numbers of O HELL as well as shouting out to grungier songs of her other band PROJECTOR. Never one to leave the stage without giving everything, Lucy still belted out the final song of the set.
Yes, it’s disappointing when a set gets cut short due to nobody’s fault, both for the audience and more so for the artist. The audience at The Hope & Ruin loved the performance, despite its brevity. I saw enough to see that O HELL is an exciting direction for Lucy, and not only allows her to explore other musical styles, but deliver great music.
Find out more at linktr.ee/ohell.
Buggs are a four-piece band from London consisting of Alice Western (vocals/guitar), Zhane Gandhi (vocals/synth), Bridie Rushton (bass) and Lucy Rushton (drums/percussion). Although as a nod to Sussex, lead singer Alice did mention she comes from Haywards Heath. Originally called Alice & The Bugs, the band met whilst studying at Goldsmiths University.
Although described in the music press and themselves as “a sound that sits somewhere between The Breeders and The Beach Boys”, I didn’t hear that. They did produce good indie tunes with vulnerable lyrics about their observations of life and making sense of the world. Definitely worth a listen, and checking them out when they next play Brighton.
Find out more at linktr.ee/buggsband.
