VILLANELLE + DIE TWICE + CARNE – GREEN DOOR STORE, BRIGHTON 2.10.25
Tonight both myself and photographer Sara-Louise attended a student only gig at one of Brighton’s leading grass roots venues, The Green Door Store. The show has been promoted by Punchbag Promotions and is part of a University tour featuring Villanelle with support from Die Twice. Tonight’s show is the third of sixteen dates and has the addition of local Brighton based band Carne as the opening support act. The opening two dates were in Exeter and Falmouth and continues throughout October at venues in London, Cardiff, Cambridge, Oxford, Belfast, Dublin, Sheffield, Manchester, York, Leeds, Newcastle, Edinburgh and finishes off in Glasgow.
CARNE (19:30 – 19:54)
Carne (pronounced Car-nay and stylised as CARNE) are one of the many great up-and-coming new bands on the Brighton music scene. Having only recently seen them play for the first time at a recent Hidden Herd show at The Hope & Ruin, (Review HERE) I was looking forward to seeing and hearing them again. They are Carmen (lead vocals/rhythm guitar), Milo (lead guitar, backing vocals), Emia (bass guitar), and Joe (drums).
Carne emerged from multiple Brighton projects and spent the best part of a year writing and recording before playing live. They played their debut show to a packed Rossi Bar, performed at Daltons during the Homegrown Festival in April, and at WaterBear Venue during The Great Escape Festival in May. Last week, they played their first show abroad when they played the QG Oberkamf in Paris, France.
They produce a raw, heavy alternative rock sound that is reminiscent of U.S. 90s alternative rock and grunge bands. Half of the songs in tonight’s eight-song set that they blast through in just 24 minutes are ones they didn’t play when I previously saw them back in June. I was later told by lead guitarist Milo that they have around 20 songs, so they mix up their set list quite a bit when performing.
As the band gets going, the venue is quite sparse of people, but once the heavy rock sound from Carmen’s vocals, the guitars, and Joe’s crashing drum kit come into play, the room starts to fill. The opening two songs are new to me. They have single-word titles on the set list. They are ‘Helen’ and ‘Marjorie’. Both of these display the type of alternative rock sound that continues throughout the set. ‘Becoming Red’ is next. This one I have heard before. The pace of the song changes throughout; it starts with Carmen singing solo and then bursts into life. There’s plenty of cymbal action from Joe for the slower parts of this one.
‘Peeling Hand’ and ‘M.S.G’ are next. Then Carmen says, “We’re called Carne, we are really excited to be here. Thank you to Green Door. This is a new one. It’s called ‘Crayons and Nails’”. This track is another one with a fluctuating pace, starting off slow with Carmen’s opening verse, and then rocking out, back to slow and rocking out again. They finish their set with the excellent two released songs, ‘J.U.M (Jumped Up Murder)’ and ‘Vast’. As ‘Vast’ comes to an end, Carmen says, “See ya” and then immediately exits the stage.
You can catch Carne at The Freemasons in Hove as one of the supports for Marvin’s Revenge on 10th October and back at The Green Door Store in Brighton at Gnarwal Fest on 11th October.
Carne:
Carmen Mellino – lead vocals/rhythm guitar
Milo Hill – lead guitar/backing vocals
Emia Demir – bass guitar
Joe McTaggart – drums
Carne setlist:
‘Helen’ (unreleased)
‘Marjorie’ (unreleased)
‘Become Red’ (unreleased)
‘Peeling Hand’ (unreleased)
‘M.S.G’ (unreleased)
‘Crayons And Nails’ (unreleased)
‘J.U.M’ (a 2025 single)
‘Vast’ (a 2025 single)
DIE TWICE (20:19 – 21:03)
During the twenty-five-minute switch between bands, the crowd built up in the venue, and it must have been not much short of its 170 capacity by the time the main support band Die Twice started their set. The four-piece, consisting of Olly (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Billy (lead guitar, vocals), Finn (bass guitar), and Jake (drums) have recently relocated from Exeter to Brighton. Although I’ve not seen them perform previously, I make this their sixth Brighton show, having already played the Green Door Store three times before, as well as headlining The Hope & Ruin last December. They also supported Nieve Ella at Concorde 2 in February of this year.
As the band take to the stage, it is noticeable straight away that this is going to be an entertaining and lively performance. They look confident and relaxed. They clearly have a good fan base, as there are members of the audience down the front who are either good mates with them or attend regular shows of theirs. The first words from lead vocalist Olly are “Are we all chuffed? Alright, let’s rock ’n’ roll.” They commence with their most recent release, ‘Princess’. This starts with a short opening riff from Billy before Olly’s opening lyrics are belted out. The song is pure rock and a great way to get things going. After the ferocious blast of the first song, the pace slows down a bit with ‘Evelyn’ from the band’s second EP, ‘A Beautiful Thing’. By the reaction of the crowd this appears to be a fan favourite.
The next five songs are all unreleased ones. Starting off with ‘Bonita’. Prior to this being played, Billy says, “Let’s go crazy, Green Door”. It’s a rhythmic rock track with a faster pace than that of ‘Evelyn’. There is some joking between the band and some audience members down the front, then ‘Easy On The Blow’ is next. A slow-paced song with Olly providing a higher vocal range. ‘Another Nice Pain’ is sung in a similar style. Olly then asks the audience, “Are you having a good time?”. They certainly are by the look of them. The sixth song of the set is ‘Jalapeño’. This has a rocker start to it, then reverts to a similar vocal style with some intricate guitar playing as the song changes pace.
Olly reveals that the next one, ‘Walk Boy’, is going to be the next single from Die Twice. It has a faster pace than most of tonight’s set and sounds like a good choice for a single. Following this, the pace slows down again with two more songs from 2024’s ‘A Beautiful Thing’ EP. The first of these is ‘Paris’, with Olly stretching his vocal range close to the limit. ‘The Art Of Dying’ is the other song and a crowd favourite. There is a lot going on in this one as it’s another that changes pace throughout. The final song of the set sounds like a future single to me. It’s called ‘Denim & Leather’ and another that certainly rocks and goes down well with the young student crowd.
Once, Die Twice have concluded their University tour with Villanelle they will be back out on the road playing their own tour titled ‘The Perfect Tour’, taking in eight dates in England, including Patterns in Brighton on 12th December.
Die Twice:
Olly Bayton – lead vocals, rhythm guitar
Billy Twamley – lead guitar, vocals
Finn Lloyd – bass guitar
Jake Coles – drums
Die Twice setlist:
‘Princess’ (a 2025 single)
‘Evelyn’ (from 2024 ‘A Beautiful Thing’ EP)
‘Bonita’ (unreleased)
‘Easy On The Blow’ (unreleased)
‘Another Nice Pain’ (unreleased)
‘Jalapeño’ (unreleased)
‘Walk Boy’ (unreleased)
‘Paris’ (from 2024 ‘A Beautiful Thing’ EP)
‘The Art Of Dying’ (from 2024 ‘A Beautiful Thing’ EP)
‘Denim & Leather’ (unreleased)
VILLANELLE (21:34 – 22:03)
Gene (vocals/rhythm guitar), Ben (lead guitar), and Jack (bass guitar) met each other in the summer of 2023 and bonded over their love of the harder side of music, and so decided to form a band. The band is Villanelle, tonight’s headliners. Gene is the youngest son of Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher. They are joined on tour by Louis (drums).
Since the band’s formation and before they released a single, Villanelle have played support with Overpass, Pastel, Seb Lowe, and also filled the opening support slot on Liam Gallagher’s 2024 ‘Definitely Maybe’ 30th anniversary tour. They also played their first UK headline tour in November 2024 at venues in Glasgow, Newcastle, Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Bristol, Nottingham, and London.
On 10th September, Villanelle’s first single ‘Hinge’ was released as a digital-only release. This was the first song that Gene, Ben, and Jack wrote together. It is grunge-like, with the opening bass, drums, and lead guitar parts resembling a section of Nirvana’s ‘Aneurysm’ from their 1992 ‘Incesticide’ album. Having only heard about Villanelle following the release of the single, I was intrigued to see and hear what the rest of their set was going to sound like.
At 9:32pm the Villanelle band members arrive on stage. Surprisingly, at this point, the venue is only about half full. Also, Gene is not front centre of the stage as I was expecting. That area is occupied by bass player Jack, with Gene stage left and lead guitarist Ben, stage right, with Louis’ drum set positioned centrally at the back of the stage. After some fine tuning, Gene approaches his mic and at 9:34pm says, “Hello, this one’s for the people outside”, meaning, it’s for those that have not yet made their way back in from the bar area. The venue does start to fill during the opening number ‘Measly Means’, but it is surprisingly noticeable that it never fills to the level it did during the performance of Die Twice’s set.
From a side angle, Gene looks so much like how his dad looked at a similar age, and for a minute I thought I had been transported back to when I first saw Oasis at the Windsor Old Trout in May 1994. ‘Measly Means’ sounds okay for an opening number. Villanelle sound like a mix of Oasis and Nirvana, although apart from the single ‘Hinge’, I think they lean more towards sounding like early Oasis. The next three songs, ‘Lazy’, ‘Opportunity Arising’, and ‘Top Floor’, all have a similar feel to them. Fifth track ‘Squeeze’ is a bit heavier. The band are quite stationary throughout, and their sound appears quite tight.
Just before they play their single ‘Hinge’, Gene appears to mimic his dad’s words from the ‘Supersonic (Live April ’94)’ track from Oasis’ ‘Live Forever’ EP by saying “this is our single, go and buy it”. That did make me chuckle. Anyway, ‘Hinge’ went down well with the crowd and it did sound similar to the recorded version with some additional pedal effects added to finish off the song. I thought the final two songs of the set were good ones. The first of those was ‘Pretty One’ and the other was a heavier sounding track called ‘Placebo’. The set lasted 29 minutes and finished with Gene saying “Thank you very much”. He then made a swift exit through the side door of the venue.
Once the university tour is over, Villanelle will be heading out on a nine-date UK tour in December titled ‘The Magical Mallard Migration tour’ taking in venues in Glasgow, Sunderland, Stockton, Preston, Manchester, Northwich, Oxford, London, and Southampton. The dates for Manchester, Northwich, and London have already sold out.
Villanelle:
Gene Gallagher – vocals, rhythm guitar
Ben Taylor – lead guitar
Jack Schiavo – bass guitar
Louis Semlekan-Faith – drums
Villanelle setlist:
‘Measly Means’ (unreleased)
‘Lazy’ (unreleased)
‘Opportunity Arising’ (unreleased)
‘Top Floor’ (unreleased)
‘Squeeze’ (unreleased)
‘Hinge’ (a 2025 single)
‘Pretty One’ (unreleased)
‘Placebo’ (unreleased)
