MARISA AND THE MOTHS + WREX – GREEN DOOR STORE, BRIGHTON 4.4.25
Friday night at Brighton’s Green Door Store was a noisy affair with Reading band Marisa And The Moths supported by Brighton’s Wrex. While headliners Marisa And The Moths were more traditional alt-rock, Wrex had more of a grungy punk sound.
Headliners Marisa And The Moths are a grunge influenced, Reading-based rock band. Their alternative rock sound features Marisa Rodriguez’s powerhouse vocals. Her lyrics delve into heavy topics such as mental health, toxic relationships, trauma and sexuality. The rest of the band, The Moths, are Liam James Barnes (5 string bass and backing vocals), Alex Ribchester (drums) and Alez D’Elia (lead guitar).
With the lights turned down, Marisa And The Moths came onto the dark Green Door Store stage. They went straight into their opening number ‘Get It Off My Chest’. More accurately three of the four-piece did, as there were technical issues and the lead guitar could not be heard. The others carried on with Marisa’s powerful rock vocals to the fore. Bassist Liam joked afterwards “One song in and we’ve already got technical difficulties. Give it up for [the guitarist], who didn’t play a note.”
Marisa started teaching the audience their line of the next song on the setlist ‘Wither Way’, while the sound team fixed the guitar issue. Liam joked he’d have to do a 20 minute standup comedy routine, to which somebody jokingly heckled “Get off”. The band then decided to switch the setlist with Marisa bringing in her acoustic number earlier. Marisa sang ‘Straight-Laced’ solo with just her acoustic guitar, with the emotions of the break up lyrics emphasised in her vocals.
Technical issues finally resolved; Marisa delighted in announcing “We can play some louder tunes now” and they proceeded with ‘Wither Away’ with the enthusiastic fans singing their part in full voice. During the next songs ‘Fake It Till You Make It’ and ‘69’ Marisa put down her guitar allowing her to move across the stage as she sang, rather than staying to the right. On ‘Slave’ she even sang on her knees!
The tempo slowed a little on parts of ‘Pedestal’ and ‘Borderline’, which showed a tender side of Marisa’s vocals. Then followed two solo numbers, firstly ‘Porch’ by Liam as the rest of the band left the stage. This had a country feel to it. Then he swapped places with Mirisa who sang ‘If You Knew’ with hints of country and folk compared with the band’s rock numbers.
As the band returned, they called a fan on stage who was watching them for the 100th time, and presented him with a balloon with 100 on it. He looked delighted, and maybe more so, when Marisa then declared “Enough of that mushy stuff. We came to rock.”
‘Gaslight’ was a heavy rock track, over which Marisa angrily screamed lyrics about an ex, who was “not a nice person”. ‘Devil’ was introduced as “time for a boogie”, even if it seemed more of a goth than dance track to me. Liam left the stage to play bass in the crowd. Rather than boogie, many in the circle around him filmed him on their phones.
Before the next song, the band asked “Are you having a good time? Now it’s time to get sad” with that song being titled ‘Sad’. There wasn’t anything remotely sad about Marisa And The Moths performance or the atmosphere at the Green Door Store. The band joked about the earlier technical difficulties, saying it made the gig more fun, adding “We’d better check. Do you want one more song, as it’s been a shit show?” Of course, the crowd wanted another song to close a great performance that was far removed from “a shit show”.
Marisa And The Moths:
Marisa Rodriguez – vocals, guitar,
Liam James Barnes – bass, backing vocals
Alex Ribchester – drums
Alez D’Elia – lead guitar
Marisa And The Moths setlist:
‘Get It Off My Chest’ (from 2024 ‘What Doesn’t Kill You’ album)
‘Straight Laced’ (from 2024 ‘What Doesn’t Kill You’ album) (Marisa Solo Acoustic)
‘Wither Away’ (from 2024 ‘What Doesn’t Kill You’ album)
‘Fake It Till You Make It’ (from 2024 ‘What Doesn’t Kill You’ album)
‘69’ (from 2020 ‘Marisa And The Moths’ album)
‘Slave’ (from 2020 ‘Marisa And The Moths’ album)
‘Choke’ (from 2020 ‘Marisa And The Moths’ album)
‘Pedestal’ (from 2024 ‘What Doesn’t Kill You’ album)
‘Borderline’ (from 2024 ‘What Doesn’t Kill You’ album)
‘Porch’ (Liam Solo)
‘If You Knew’ (Marisa Solo Acoustic)
‘Gaslight’ (from 2024 ‘What Doesn’t Kill You’ album)
‘Devil’ (from 2024 ‘What Doesn’t Kill You’ album)
‘Sad’ (from 2024 ‘What Doesn’t Kill You’ album)
‘Just Like Me’ (from 2024 ‘What Doesn’t Kill You’ album)
‘Skin’ (from 2020 ‘Marisa And The Moths’ album)
‘Tied Up’ (from 2020 ‘Marisa And The Moths’ album)
‘Who Are You Waiting For?’ (from 2024 ‘What Doesn’t Kill You’ album)
‘Needy’ (from 2020 ‘Marisa And The Moths’ album)
Wrex (stylised as WREX) is an alt-rock band from Brighton formed by Mae Seaton (vocals) and George Donoghue (co-vocals and guitar). They have already had airtime on the likes of BBC Radio 1 (Future Alternative), Kerrang! Radio, Planet Rock, BBC Sussex & Surrey (Introducing) and KISS FM (remix). Mae and George were joined by Tom Stevens (guitar) and Greg Walton (drums), but bassist Joe Constable was unavailable.
As the times on the Green Door Store website, social media and even the poster at the venue were all different, Wrex opened the night’s entertainment later, allowing people time to arrive. Their performance was worth waiting for, as it was delivered with such vigour and drive.
Wrex started in darkness facing away from the audience with a recorded sound bite that could have come straight from a horror film. Then they instantly went into their fast punky rock sound with ‘S.A.D’. On this opening number and throughout their set, Mae and George shared lead vocals. Mae was very energetic from the start, singing at the very edge of the stage and high kicking. Mae had a great stage presence full of confidence and was fully engaged with the audience as she sang.
The mood changed for ‘Recovery’ with its heavier guitars and a darker vocal from Mae, as she menacingly strutted around the stage. ‘111’ an unreleased track had more of a punk feel, while ‘This Hell Goes A Long Way Down’ had hints of The Prodigy. A slower slightly softer number up next, ‘Heaven’s Gate’, showed another side of Wrex and added variety to a full-on set.
The loud fast drumming was a key feature in Wrex’s set, and signalled a return to fast rock on ‘Take A Walk’. This got many more in the crowd dancing along. Wrex closed with ‘Paradise’ the title track from their second EP. Announced as the band’s favourite, it looked like a fans’ favourite too. With Mae leaving the stage to sing in amongst the audience, this full-on rock number was a perfect way to end a great opening set by the band. Wrex’s performance was rightfully greeted by loud applause and whistles from the appreciative crowd.
Judging by how busy both bands’ merch stalls were after the gig, it is safe to say that the Brighton crowd loved both Marisa And The Moths and Wrex. So much so that one fan got her face signed by the members of Wrex, even after the band said the marker pen would be hard to remove. That’s dedication!
Wrex:
Mae Seaton – lead vocals
George Donoghue – lead vocals, guitar
Tom Stevens – guitar and BVs
Greg Walton – drums
Joe Constable – bass (not present)
Wrex setlist:
‘S.A.D.’ (from 2024 ‘This Hell Goes A Long Way Down’ EP)
‘Vacant’ (a 2021 single)
‘Recovery’ (a 2023 single)
‘111’ (unreleased)
‘This Hell Goes A Long Way Down’ (from 2024 ‘This Hell Goes A Long Way Down’ EP)
‘Heaven’s Gate’ (from 2024 ‘This Hell Goes A Long Way Down’ EP)
‘Take A Walk’ (from 2024 ‘This Hell Goes A Long Way Down’ EP)
‘Paradise’ (from 2022 ‘Paradise’ EP)
