CONGRATULATIONS + SAMETIME + DIRTSHARKS + TIA ICE – WATERBEAR MUSIC BAR, BRIGHTON 16.7.25
Just when you think that Brighton couldn’t possibly sustain another music venue, a new one opens. However, strictly speaking this one isn’t entirely new: it was formerly The Latest Music Bar. However, it is now under new ownership, has been refitted, and is known as the WaterBear Music Bar and is located at 14-17 Manchester Street, Brighton, BN2 1TF. It is a sister venue to the WaterBear Venue on the seafront at 169-170 Kings Road Arches, Brighton, BN1 1NB. Both venues are run by the WaterBear music college, (located at Hanover House, 118 Queens Road, Brighton BN1 3XG), and some of the artists playing tonight have links to the college.
Proceedings begin in the bar with a very uplifting speech from WaterBear CEO Adam Bushell. His speech highlights the continued importance of live music, and harks back to the 1970s Musicians Union “keep music live” campaign. After Adam’s words of wisdom we head downstairs to the venue to indeed, enjoy some live music.
Tonight’s first act is Tia Ice, who is keen to point out that although that is her name, the band are known as Tia Ice. She tells us: “WE are Tia Ice”. They are a seven piece, comprising Tia on vocals, two backing singers, a guitarist, bassist, saxophonist and drummer. The music is soul with elements of jazz and hip-hop.
Tia also writes poetry. It’s rather good. The second song commences with a poem (backed by subtle guitar) about how she became a singer. The poem then develops into a song. Tia’s lyrics are every bit as good as her poetry, and are very thought-provoking. The song is slow and sultry, and it quickly becomes apparent that the sax (played by Jonah Little) is very much the band’s lead instrument. The song is slow and sultry, and Jonah’s playing is very expressive. Indeed, the band as a whole have a tremendous ‘feel’.
The third song has a reggae feel, which is good to hear. It’s a musical form which seems to have become ignored in recent times. Every song is very expressive. Unfortunately there is far too much chatter in the crowd, which means that some of the subtlety in the music is in danger of being lost. Final song ‘Lady Starlight’ again starts with a poem, and features some nice fingerpicking from guitarist Jack. Tia Ice is a most impressive talent and I’m sure that we’ll be hearing more from her and the band.
Tia Ice:
Tia Ice – lyricist/main vocals
Imani Ruiz – backing vocals
Geo Lane – backing vocals
Jonah Little – saxophone
Jack Patrick – guitar, bv’s
Chantelle Bartrup – bass
Cash Green – drums
Tia Ice setlist:
‘Stay Tru’
‘Summah Nights’
‘Red Wine’
‘Red Room’ (Hiatus Kayote cover)
‘Lady Starlight’
Next up are Dirtsharks, a four piece consisting of a violinist, guitarist, bass and drums. The opening song has an absolutely searing violin led intro. The drum fills are awesome too. The violin, for this song anyway, appears to be the lead instrument. The music has a folk-punk feel, but is heavier than that particular description may suggest. For ‘Hawks’ the violinist is now on lead guitar. It doesn’t have the same ferocity as the opening song, at least not until the middle eight when all hell breaks loose. The violinist abandons his guitar and reverts to fiddle, whilst the singer guitarist also picks up a fiddle and a lead violin duet ensues which is really rather spectacular. Propelled by some awesome drumming this is utterly ferocious stuff!!!
The singer is back on guitar for ‘Nosebleed’. This wasn’t the planned song but sadly there is a problem with the violin sound. However, they take this particular technical problem in their stride. The song’s comparatively laid back until the chorus, when it all becomes a bit grungy, with an ace guitar solo from the singer. Quite a few of the crowd know ‘Retina’, and the set ends with ‘Spin Class’, which starts with electronic drums, and has a bit of a 1990s feel in a Blur ‘Song 2’ kinda way, but don’t let that by any means put you off. It’s a great song. A five song set is way too short, but I have every confidence that they’ll be playing for longer, on a much larger stage, somewhere near you very soon.
Dirtsharks:
Aidan Moran – lead vocals, guitar, violin
Brendan Moran – lead guitar, vocals, violin
Matt Edwards – bass, vocals
James Stevenson – drums, vocals
Dirtsharks setlist:
‘Sleep’ (unreleased)
‘Hawks’ (unreleased)
‘Violinstrumental’ (unreleased)
‘Nosebleed’ (from 2024 ‘Stay Lucent’ EP)
‘Retina’ (from 2024 ‘Stay Lucent’ EP)
‘Spin Class’ (from 2024 ‘Stay Lucent’ EP)
Dirtsharks are followed by Sametime, who have relocated to Brighton from Australia. Is that showing commitment or what? The core members of Sametime are Sam and Tim Aitken, who are brothers. Which of them is which I’m not entirely sure, but one of them is 6’ 7” and is the singer, whilst the other is much shorter than that (well, most people are), and is the guitarist. I don’t know which of them is which, but I’m going to take a punt: I reckon Sam is the singer, and Tim is the guitarist. I have a 50% chance of being wrong, which means I probably am, but that’s what I’m sticking with for the rest of the review. (“And you would be correct”..Ed). As well as themselves, they have a bassist (Luke Pilmer), they seem to have pinched Dirtsharks’ drummer (James Stevenson), and they have a very clever keyboardist / guitarist in the form of Finnian James who is playing his first gig with them tonight.
They soundcheck, and then walk offstage because they have a ‘walk-on’ recording. It features Trump’s f-word tirade from the other week and is pretty good! Their opening song is much punchier than I was expecting. The harmonies between Sam and Tim are very tight, but that’s not surprising with them being brothers. The second song starts with an electro vocal intro on the backing track. Tim sings lead on this one. It has a very 1980s feel and sounds like a Hall & Oates song. That really isn’t my kind of thing, but it’s very well done. However, the next song also sounds like Hall & Oates. This really is highly derivative, and once again Tim is on lead. If they do want to be a Hall & Oates tribute act, Tim could perhaps grow a moustache and Sam could dye his hair blond. There’s probably money to be made by going in that direction, but I think that they have a lot more potential than that.
The next song sounds as if it could be a Don Henley cover, and the one after that (from an unreleased EP) still has a mid to late 1980s AOR feel. The band’s musicianship is superb, but the general effect is as if someone has put on a 1980s compilation LP. Another song from the unreleased EP is acoustic led, and becomes utterly explosive! This is much better and is possibly the best song of their set. They play their most recent single ‘What A Way To Go’, which also sounds far more individual. However, the set in general and this song in particular highlights something of a problem: although Sam is the apparent lead singer, he doesn’t actually do very much apart from sing back-up. This makes him something of an underused asset. After two really excellent songs, ‘Pickles’ is a bit bland. However, their closing song ‘Some Things Never Change’ is good (and no – that’s not because it is their last song!), and Sam plays tambourine! At the end of the song he picks up a Telecaster and waves it around. I have no idea why. There’s a lot of promise here and a lot to enjoy. However, the band’s quality control needs to improve because there’s a lot of chaff too. In order to move forward they need to fire the ghosts of Daryll Hall and John Oates, and give Sam a lot more to do too!
Sametime:
Sam Aitken – lead vocals
Tim Aitken – lead vocals and guitar
Luke Pilmer – bass guitar and bvs
James Stevenson – drums and bvs
Finnian James – lead guitar, piano and bvs
Sametime setlist:
‘The Start’ (unreleased)
‘Should’ve Known Better’ (a 2024 single)
‘Modern Day Bonnie & Clyde’ (unreleased)
‘The Truman Show’ (unreleased)
‘IDK Much’ (unreleased)
‘Is This The End?’ (unreleased)
‘What A Way To Go’ (a single 2025)
‘Pickles’ (a 2025 single)
‘Some Things Never Change’ (a 2023 single)
I’ve only seen Congratulations (stylized as ‘congratulations’) once before: headlining the Beach Stage at The Great Escape festival in 2023. I must admit, I wasn’t that impressed. I thought that they were okay, but really no more than that. However, I have heard the records that they’ve released over the last couple of years, and they’ve become increasingly more interesting. Indeed, their more recent releases have been far more electro than I remember them being live. However, whilst the electro influence is there, it’s not as evident live as it is on their records. There are plenty of samples though, which the drummer triggers by hitting a pad.
The guitarist is on co-lead vocals with frontwoman Leah Stanhope, who is absolutely on fire. ‘1 2 Save Me’ from their ‘Slap’ EP is punchy and loud, and doesn’t really sound like anything else. They also play a song from their album, which is coming out next year. It’s astonishingly powerful. The drums drown out everything else, which I’m not entirely sure was intended! There’s some awesome lead guitar playing throughout, although the synth is sometimes barely audible. Leah Stanhope is utterly commanding throughout as well. There’s something about her that suggests that it would be unwise to disagree with her!
Congratulations are clearly a band that continues to evolve at quite an impressive rate. Not only has their material improved massively since I saw them last, so has their showmanship and stagecraft. I can’t wait to hear their album. They play Brighton Concorde 2 as part of The Wedding Present’s sold out ‘At The Edge Of The Sea’ festival on 8th August, and they’re at Hackney’s Moth Club on 23rd August – Tickets HERE.
Congratulations:
Leah Stanhope – vocals
James Gillingham – drums and backing vocals
Greg Burns – bass and backing vocals
Jamie Chellar – guitar and vocals
Congratulations setlist:
‘Get 2 Me’ (a 2025 single)
‘Hosepipe Ban’ (from 2024 ‘Slap’ EP)
‘1 2 Save Me’ (from 2024 ‘Slap’ EP)
‘Hollywood Swingers’ (unreleased)
‘Doctor Doctor’ (unreleased)
‘Fought 4 Love’ (unreleased)
‘Easter Island Head’ (from 2023 ‘Woo Hoo’ EP)
‘Zeitgeist’ (from 2023 ‘Woo Hoo’ EP)
‘Ice Tea’ (from 2024 ‘Slap’ EP)
