WITCH FEVER – RESIDENT, BRIGHTON 21.10.22
Shows on small stages can be pretty hit or miss, especially for bands on their way up. For some, the lack of room to roam gets stifling, visibly putting a damper on their stage presence and denting the whole show’s atmosphere. For others, though, the enemy of art is the absence of limitation. Speaking to Witch Fever outside Resident, where they were set to perform the first of four record store shows celebrating the release of their debut album ‘Congregation’, they did seem uncertain which camp they’d fall into. “We’ve not done a gig like this before,” guitarist Alisha Yarwood admitted while rolling cigs with bassist Alex Thompson, who wondered aloud whether they’d even class it as a gig or as something stranger.
We’re happy to report, though, that the guttural message of Witch Fever’s debut can’t be corralled by any physical space. Whether the doom-punk quartet were playing the thrashier end of their catalogue or stopping the crowd dead in their tracks with slow, tense tracks, their sound couldn’t help but spill out onto the North Laine streets.
Annabelle Joyce’s harsh drums kicked into high gear as soon as she sat down, along with the industrial murmurings of Thompson’s bass. None of their instruments seemed to overpower the others, or even intend to. The Witch Fever sound is a perfectly balanced weapon, hand-crafted in collaboration to be as cutting as possible.
It was during the second track of their set, self-described dark horse of the ‘Congregation‘ record ‘Beauty And Grace’, that I really clocked just how special Witch Fever are as a live act. I knew they’d be class live – I’ve tried to see them four times and missed them every time, but I kept trying to see if their glowing gig reviews held water. Seeing frontwoman Amy Walpole thrashing around the stage proved all those reviews right. She glowered at crowds through warpaint-like eye makeup on tracks like the brutal call to action ‘Bully Boy’, quite literally climbing the walls (and the counter, and the record stands) to give everyone a glimpse of her anger turned to art.
We often compare bands to how they sound on record, seeing alignment with recorded sound as a measure of quality, but I’d go as far as to say they were actually better in Resident than they are on the album. In the flesh, Walpole’s lines were tinged with a stunning trembling tone that showed just how personal these songs are to her.
For slower tracks like ‘I Saw You Dancing’ and ‘Congregation’, she could be seen laying a hand to the teeth tattooed on her chest, as though using her voice to ground herself. This even continued to the end in the faster, more visceral ‘12’. For the song’s powerful close, after lamenting that she “I never got an apology” for the abuse she suffered as a child in her church, Walpole moved the hand that seemed to be all that was holding her together to let out a primal scream of anguish. This feels like a strange term to apply to an album with such a consistent mission to criticise religious institutions using their power to silence victims, but ‘Congregation’ is fundamentally a confessional album. It’s just taking secrets out of the church booth and onto the stage.
Witch Fever setlist:
‘Blessed Be Thy’,
‘Beauty And Grace’
‘I Saw You Dancing’
‘Slow Burn’
‘Bully Boy’
‘Congregation’
‘Reincarnate’
‘12’
