BERRIES + HYPSOLINE + SHALLOW HONEY – THE PRINCE ALBERT, BRIGHTON 23.10.24
The garage-rock trio Berries (stylised as BERRIES) opened their UK tour to promote their self-titled album in Brighton at The Prince Albert courtesy of Lout promoters. Incidentally it was also their first headline show in Brighton, but not the first time the Brighton and Hove Music team have covered this exciting band, which consists of Holly Carter (vocals and guitar), Lauren Cooper (bass) and Lexi Clark (drums).
A simple introduction from singer Holly of “We’re Berries”, and it was straight into their first track ‘Barricade’ with its punky alt-rock guitar sound. From that opening number the tight musicianship between the three of them was evident. Bassist Lauren would often face Lexi on drums as they seemed to feed off each other’s energy. The other noticeable feature was all three played with huge smiles. Their enjoyment soon spread into the packed crowd at The Prince Albert.
A couple of clicks of Lexi’s drumsticks, and it was into another new song from their new album ‘BERRIES’, ‘Creature’. There was a clever drop in tempo and volume mid song. After Lauren’s quick check of her pedal board, and Holly admitting that although it was only the first date on the tour, she’d already forgotten what day of the week it was, next up was ‘We Are Machines’ from their debut ‘How We Function’ album. The crowd needed little encouragement to wave their arms in the air to one of their favourites.
There was a subtle change in style on ‘Blurry Shapes’ with a looser bass style from Lauren, which was more funky, and softer drumming from Lexi. Holly’s vocals match the different style well, especially on closing bars with an almost unaccompanied vocal asking the question “Where are we heading now?” The tempo and volume increased on the rockier number ‘Watching Wax’.
There was a complete change for the next song, ‘Balance’ as Holly swapped to an acoustic guitar. ‘Balance’ is the first acoustic song the band have written. Holly also informed us it was going to be the first time they’d be playing it in front of people, and they had debated whether to include it. As well as the guitar swap, Lexi switched from drums to percussion with shakers. I admit I was surprised at such a change in musical style, but the band pulled it off, and I’m sure it will stay in the setlist for the rest of the tour.
After the quiet song, it was another older song from their debut album, whose title ‘Wall Of Noise’ seemed appropriate in the running order signalling a return to their more familiar louder garage rock. Their latest single release ‘Jagged Routine’ started with one of many great bass lines from Lauren. The song increased in speed led by Lexi’s drumming. So much so, that one of her drumsticks came flying forward from behind the drum kit.
Drumstick returned, it was another fast intro to ‘This Space’. The dual vocals worked well with a call and reply between Holly and Lauren. ‘Narrow Tracks’ was introduced as “Mid-tempo. More of one to sway to”. It had a clever song structure with changes of pace, and slower sections that did get the crowd swaying along. The song which followed, ‘Control’ also had cleverly constructed changes of tempo throughout, which the band executed perfectly as one. ‘Crumpled Clothes’ was more of an alt-rock number, with the guitarists striking some classic rock poses as they played facing each other mid-stage.
The next track was introduced as their last one as Berries weren’t doing an encore, as it’s “not cool”. Holly joked “We’ll pretend you screamed ‘encore’ and play another song whether you like it or not.” Judging by the crowd’s enjoyment of Berries’ performance, there was no question that they wanted another song, if not several more. The loud fast track ‘Spiral’ closed a great headline performance by Berries. The interplay between the guitarists worked so well, as it did throughout the set. Other than the quiet section in that closing number Lexi really belted those drums.
After the show, Lexi did tell me she was confident her drum kit would survive the tour. If their opening night is anything to go by, then Berries can be confident of more great receptions on the rest of the tour like the one they received at The Prince Albert.
BERRIES:
Holly Carter – vocals, guitar
Lauren Cooper – bass
Lexi Clark – drums
BERRIES setlist:
‘Barricade’ (from 2024 ‘BERRIES’ album)
‘Creature’ (from 2024 ‘BERRIES’ album)
‘We Are Machines’ (from 2022 ‘How We Function’ album)
‘Blurry Shapes’ (from 2024 ‘BERRIES’ album)
‘Watching Wax’ (from 2024 ‘BERRIES’ album)
‘Balance’ (from 2024 ‘BERRIES’ album)
‘Wall Of Noise’ (from 2022 ‘How We Function’ album)
‘Jagged Routine’ (from 2024 ‘BERRIES’ album)
‘This Space’ (from 2024 ‘BERRIES’ album)
‘Narrow Tracks’ (from 2024 ‘BERRIES’ album)
‘Control’ (from 2024 ‘BERRIES’ album)
‘Crumpled Clothes’ (from 2024 ‘BERRIES’ album)
‘Spiral’ (from 2022 ‘How We Function’ album)
Brighton’s indie pop rock band Hypsoline (pronounced ‘hip-so-lean’) were the main support on Wednesday. The band consists of Beth Molly Moore (vocals and guitar) Trilby White (vocals and bass) Natalie Caushaj (guitar) who are friends from secondary school. They were joined on drums by Adam at The Albert.
Hypsoline’s first song ‘Same Love’ started with the first of many punchy bass riffs from Trilby. Beth’s distinctive breathy voice with its laid-back quality fitted well with the quick music breaks sprinkled throughout the song. ‘Nights Like These’ the title track from their debut EP released earlier in the year, had a poppier funkier feel from Trilby’s bass. By this second song both Beth and Trilby were jumping around on the instrumental sections. During one of these Beth managed to step on the pedals at the front of the stage, introducing some unplanned feedback into the track. By contrast the planned vocal harmonies between Beth, Trilby and Natalie on ‘Nights Like These’ were quite stunning.
Their next two songs were unreleased numbers. For the first ‘Cherry Blossom’ Beth played guitar. It started quietly before building into an alt-rock number. As on many songs, the contrasting vocal styles of Beth and Trilby worked well on this track, which closed as it started quietly. Before the second unreleased song ‘Live With Myself’, Beth mentioned they would be recording their second EP next year. This new song featured stunning guitar parts by Natalie. After jumping around during the opening two songs, Beth sang parts of this song crouched and kneeling on the stage floor.
The indie pop ‘Call Your Name’ saw Beth leave the stage to sing. Along with her banter with the audience between songs, it was a sign of her growing confidence as a performer. Returning to the stage Beth announced it was “going to get real sad now. Stick with us”, A simple “Take it away Natalie”, and her guitar started the atmospheric ‘Satellite’. Trilby took lead vocals with a lot of emotion and power in her voice, as if she was desperate to get her message heard. Beth’s husky style provided the perfect contrast on backing vocals. This ballad-like song featured some very special intricate guitar parts from Natalie. ‘Instead Of Me’, another emotional number, had an interesting contrast between Trilby’s funkier bass and Natalie’s rockier guitar, which worked really well.
Hypsoline were almost apologetic announcing their last song ‘Disposable Girl’ saying of their closing three emotional songs “we didn’t want to make you cry”. ‘Disposable Girl’ had a beautiful soft opening. As the song built, Trilby’s lead vocals were answered by Beth and Natalie on backing vocals. Trilby skilfully swapped between quiet reflective singing to angry shouting on that closing number.
Even closing on three sad songs, Hypsoline certainly didn’t leave the audience feeling down. Their combination of punchy bass riffs, spectacular guitars, rich harmonies, with the contrasting vocal styles of Beth and Trilby left those at The Albert very happy.
Hypsoline return to headline at The Prince Albert on Wednesday 13th November (Tickets HERE).
Hypsoline:
Beth Molly Moore – vocals and guitar
Trilby White – vocals and bass
Natalie Caushaj – guitar and vocals
Adam – drums
Hypsoline setlist:
‘Same Love’ (from 2024 ‘Nights Like These’ EP)
‘Nights Like These’ (from 2024 ‘Nights Like These’ EP)
‘Cherry Blossom’ (unreleased)
‘Live With Myself’ (unreleased)
‘Call Your Name’ (from 2024 ‘Nights Like These’ EP)
‘Satellite’ (unreleased)
‘Instead Of Me’ (unreleased)
‘Disposable Girl’ (from 2024 ‘Nights Like These’ EP)
Shallow Honey are an Alt-Rock / Dirty Pop four piece from Horsham and Brighton. They are Rai Conway (vocals), Ben Siviter (guitar), Carl Toppin (bass) and Tim Rather (drums).
They opened with the alt-rock sounds of ‘Webs’, before the darker deeper sounds on ‘So, Still?’. Apparent from the start was singer Rai’s energy and stage presence. She had a fun, almost playful side. The others appeared more serious, letting Rai take centre stage. Musically the band were very tight allowing Rai to put on a show. Before the third song Rai introduced the band with “We’re Shallow Honey. We’ve not met before.” She then pointed to the gap between the stage and the audience and invited people to “come forward or I’ll be joining you.”
On ‘Breakup Breakdown’, their latest single release, Rai showed another side of her vocal range with a softer emotional side. Afterwards she said it was “a song for people going through a break up.” Quickly adding with her big smile “Not wishing a break up for any of you.”
True to her word, during ‘Scab’ Rai left the stage for the now smaller gap between the stage and the audience. The pained screamed vocals of ‘Scab’ were followed by the poppier sounds, make that ‘dirty pop’, of ‘Lightweight’. Shallow Honey closed a fun lively opening set with the rockier ‘Control’. Rai interacted with the guitarist Ben and bassist Carl as she faced them singing the lyric “smile, smile”. They were smiling, as were the crowd at The Prince Albert. The song and set closed with Rai frenzied shouting “smile,smile”.
I had seen them play before, but this latest outing was an even better performance from Shallow Honey. At The Prince Albert they certainly won many newcomers over with their dirty rock-pop tunes and Rai’s sense of fun and stage presence.
You can catch Shallow Honey at Loud Women’s event at The Piper, St. Leonards on Friday 1 November (Tickets HERE).
Shallow Honey:
Rai Conway – vocals
Ben Siviter – guitar
Carl Toppin – bass
Tim Rather – drums
Shallow Honey setlist:
‘Webs’ (unreleased)
‘So, Still?’ (from 2024 ‘Lost Bodies’ EP)
‘Breakup Breakdown’ (from 2024 ‘Lost Bodies’ EP)
‘Scab’ (unreleased)
‘Lightweight’ (from 2024 ‘Lost Bodies’ EP)
‘Start The Ride’ (unreleased)
‘Control’ (a 2021 single release)
