BDRMM + DAMEFRISØR – PATTERNS, BRIGHTON 24.11.23
bdrmm (pronounced as “bedroom”) made a welcome return to Brighton on a cold and crisp Friday night for their long sold out show at Patterns. A show that sold out almost instantly after their in-store performance back in July at the wonderful Resident Music shop in North Laine. I know that for a fact, as I lingered on purchasing my ticket for a day, but when the band announced there were only 20 tickets left, never have my fingers moved so fast to secure mine before it was all too late. Now, that instore show was 45 minutes of something special to support the release of their second LP ‘I Don’t Know’, an album that has made it into Resident Music’s ‘Top 10 Albums Of The Year’, placing at number five no less. This evening for the closing date of the English part of the tour, I am expecting a longer spell of magic from them at this Love Thy Neighbour promoted event. Patterns plays a fine host venue for the gig, I am sure it will feel rather intimate in comparison to some of their other sold out shows on this tour such the Scala in London.
Support came in the form of Bristol/London based band DAMEFRISØR (pronounced as “dame-eh-frizz-your”), they came on at 7:30pm on the dot to much shimmering of the drum kits symbols, bringing the crowd to a hush, we were slowly eased into ‘52a’ from their 2023 debut EP ‘Island Of Light’. Next came ‘The Grip’ from the same EP, this saw the electronic beats kick in, it reminded me a little of ‘Working Men’s Club’.
Frontman Kazhi sported a large gap at the front, and enquired if the crowd “Would like to perhaps move forward and fill it…or not”. The synth beats powered up once more for ‘D.O.D’ (also from their EP) and was then followed by ‘SOL’ a currently yet unreleased song.
Thanking the crowd, we were informed “Tonight was the final night of the tour they were supporting bdrmm after a great run of shows” and we moved into another as yet unreleased song, ‘Clouds’ with Sam going full-on with his modular synth set up. ‘Basilimus’ then followed.
After pointing out to the crowd they can “Come and buy a t-shirt afterwards”, they moved into the final song of the set ‘2-HEH‐V’ from their 2021 single ‘Do You Think I’m Special?’. Upon starting up, a slight timing issue occurred, with Kazhi exclaiming “false start” and we were away again. A real great closer to the set ending in what sounded like video game shooting effects.
This was a rousing atmospheric performance, set predominantly to electric blue lighting throughout, I am sure there was some smoke in there too, which really intensified that small night club vibe, forcing you to focus entirely on the action going on the stage. With Kazhi’s haunting and often wailing vocals on top of the fusion of industrial style synth dance beats and a good thorough drenching of shoegaze guitar, this really did make for an incredibly absorbing performance. I must admit this was the first time I had heard the band and was very much sold on what I saw, it looks like I’ll be buying their record before it sells out.
DAMEFRISØR are coming back to Brighton on 6th December for a headline show for ‘Hidden Herd’ at The Hope & Ruin, alongside AtticOmatic, Ideal Living & Moon Idle. Which will be their last show of the year. Tickets can be bought HERE.
DAMEFRISØR:
Kazhi Jahfar – vocals
Nyle Dowd – drums
Garin Curtis – guitar
Jamie Brown – guitar
Sam Nobbs – synth & keys
Megan Jenkins – bass
DAMEFRISØR setlist:
‘52a’ (from 2023 ‘Island Of Light’ EP)
‘The Grip’ (from 2023 ‘Island Of Light’ EP)
‘D.O.D’ (from 2023 ‘Island Of Light’ EP)
‘SOL’ (unreleased)
‘Clouds’ (unreleased)
‘Basilimus’ (unreleased)
‘2-HEH‐V’ (from 2021 ‘Do You Think I’m Special?’ / ‘2-HEH-V’ single)
Thanks to Kazhi for kindly typing the setlist into my phone before dashing for the train to London.
As it was an early doors show, bdrmm came on at 8:30pm. The venue was now fully packed, making it very hard to get back in time to my spot down at the front as everyone there was eagerly awaiting this moment. Massive Attack throbbed over the speaker system for the band’s entrance. Joe knelt down over his pedals, and the pulsing backing heartbeat started for ‘Alps’, Connors drums then fired up, and Ryan’s vocals washed over us, we were away.
With no break between songs, which was very much the case for a lot of the set, we were sucked straight into ‘Be Careful’ from their 2023 album ‘I Don’t Know’. The first section of the set was predominately from this album in its sequential running order as ‘It’s Just A Bit Of Blood’ followed. “Is everybody good? Lurrvley” checked in Ryan before announcing “an old one” ‘Gush’ from the 2020 album ‘Bedroom’.
“Steady, we’re in Brighton now” said Joe as the set moved to a further run of songs from ‘I Don’t Know’, starting with ‘We Fall Apart’, then continuing on from the same album we then had ‘Hidden Cinema’ and ‘Pulling Stitches’. The wall of sound of the guitars and Ryan’s wailing lyrics are hypnotic. With Ryan stage left swaying as he plays you can’t help but just sway with him.
Ryan halted proceedings to thank DAMEFRISØR for joining them for the past two weeks on tour, “One of the best bands we’ve ever met, good sound people”. We now left the new album and moved back to a song from the band’s 2020 ‘Bedroom’ album ‘That What You Wanted To Hear?’.
Next up was the band’s brand new single released only earlier this month ‘Mud’. Starting with keyboard and Ryan singing those beautiful lyrics, it was of a slower pace to previous album songs, “That song’s amazing” a young chap in the front row bestowed upon the band at the very end, “Ah thank you mate” replied Joe, “You can come again” joked Ryan “But… is just that one?” someone in the band questioned too much laughter, “All of them” the young chap replied.
Next we were into a run of four from the ‘Bedroom’ album, namely ‘Forget The Credits’, ‘Push/Pull’, ‘Happy’, and then ‘(Un)happy’. All four were full-on proper head nodders, with Joe moving round and round on centre stage and Jordan to the right with both relentless in their guitar work. The way the crowd were worked up into a frenzy for ‘(Un)happy’, my word, it was pure audio ecstasy, I just didn’t want it to end. Next we had ‘Three’ from the June 2022 single ‘Three’ and ‘A Reason To Celebrate’ from the 2020 ‘Bedroom’ album.
A slight break took place as Jordan ran off the stage “Thank you so much for spending your Friday night with us, this has been unreal” said Ryan, Jordan then returned apologising as he “had to do a quick poo!” laughter ensued and it was then the final song of the evening ‘Port’ from the 2022 EP of the same name.
The band are so in tune with each other, it really at times felt as if you could have been listening to the studio albums, so tight that they were. And to get a good proper full length set of 90 minutes in such an intimate venue was amazing, true value for money. You could see just how into the music the band all are, closed eyes, feeling every chord and beat, an utter joy to watch and hear. I could have happily listened to them play for another 90 minutes.
bdrmm will play their final dates in Dublin and then Belfast, before a homecoming Christmas show in Hull. They have already announced their early 2024 tour, sadly nothing too local for us has currently been announced. There are lots of well-placed venues should you be further afield than Sussex, however a bird in my ear said something in April may be happening.
bdrmm:
Conor Murray – drums
Joe Vickers – guitar
Jordan Smith – bass
Ryan Smith – guitar & vocals
bdrmm setlist:
‘Alps’ (from 2023 ‘I Don’t Know’ album)
‘Be Careful’ (from 2023 ‘I Don’t Know’ album)
‘It’s Just A Bit Of Blood’ (from 2023 ‘I Don’t Know’ album)
‘Gush’ (from 2020 ‘Bedroom’ album)
‘We Fall Apart’ (from 2023 ‘I Don’t Know’ album)
‘Hidden Cinema’ (from 2023 ‘I Don’t Know’ album)
‘Pulling Stitches’ (from 2023 ‘I Don’t Know’ album)
‘Is That What You Wanted To Hear?’ (from 2020 ‘Bedroom’ album)
‘Mud’ (from 2023 ‘Mud’ single)
‘Forget The Credits’ (from 2020 ‘Bedroom’ album)
‘Push/Pull’ (from 2020 ‘Bedroom’ album)
‘Happy’ (from 2020 ‘Bedroom’ album)
‘(Un)happy’ (from 2020 ‘Bedroom’ album)
‘Three’ (from 2022 ‘Three’ single)
‘A Reason To Celebrate’ (from 2020 ‘Bedroom’ album)
‘Port’ (from 2022 ‘Port’ EP)
