THE ITCH + REALLY GOOD TIME + SLAG – SEBRIGHT ARMS, LONDON 13.11.25
It’s that time of the year again when The Great Escape Festival’s First Fifty already announced bands and artists take to the stage of various London grassroots music venues for a one night only showcase event! Well we couldn’t really miss this could we? And so we had a shifty at this year’s up-and-coming acts, and for yours truly there was one trio of bands that really took my fancy, these being The Itch, Really Good Time and Slag who are appearing on the Dork Magazines stage at Sebright Arms which is located at 31-35 Coate Street and luckily it’s one of my favourite London venues! It’s an intimate venue in which I’ve found to have previously put on bands on their way up to the bigger venues. I suspect tonight’s lineup will also be moving up the ladder of venues fairly quickly.
Starting off the night’s proceedings is Slag, which is stylized in capitals. The Brighton based band might be familiar to our local readers who have been able to see them ply their trade at some of our cherished venues including Chalk, Patterns, The Hope & Ruin, The Rossi Bar, Green Door Store, Folklore Rooms, Daltons and Alphabet.
Slag comprise lead singer Amelie, guitarist Dan, bassist Freya, Luke on drums, and Seb on the keyboards. They take to the stage and look like they’re having the time of their lives, Dan and Freya rocking out together and Seb joining in on the partying when he’s not on keyboard duties.
Their music is Math rock/post punk indie pop and I see a lot of Porridge Radio-esq in Amelie’s vocal style. The songs vary in tempo and they are such a tight band to watch, in fact Amelia’s guitar work is sublime! They kickstart the set with ‘Legs’ which features some quick wordplay vocals, entwined with some notable guitar work which captivates the audience. Their newer songs continue in the same vein and you can tell that they love being on stage together and that they are a bunch of friends having the time of their lives whilst they rock out together.
The band joke around with each other constantly and that rebounds into the crowd who are loving every moment. The set lasted around 30 minutes and they had everyone in the palm of their hands. I highly recommend that you catch Slag during next year’s Great Escape festival.
Up next is Irish based rockers Really Good Time who hail from Dublin. They consist of Diolmhain Ingram Roche on vocals and guitar, Jack Hitchcock on bass and vocals, as well as Adrian Garvey on drums. Ireland is a hot bed for up and coming bands currently, with the likes of Cliffords, Child of Prague, Last Apollo, Black Nylon, Bleach 9:3, The Drive all worth checking out.
Really Good Time took to the stage dressed in what was meant to be matching jumpsuits, but Diolmhain is wearing an original jumpsuit from their earlier days, due to him losing the current one recently. They joked that “the original will be worth absolutely nothing in the future”.
They kick off with the sound of bells which leads into opener ‘Sh*t One’ which is their brand new single and is very Queens Of The Stone Age-esq, with a pumping bassline, and the guitar follow suit. ‘Dio’ and Jack thrash around the stage, not standing still for a second. They must get very sweaty under their jumpsuits, but they don’t seem to care. Next up is ‘Best Medicine’ which is a newer unreleased song and it follows the opener perfectly. They continue to make use of the small stage space, and Dio gets some incredible sounds out of his guitar and pedals. Their set is relentless and they have brought a few friends along who, as you would expect, are loving every moment!
There’s not much rest in between the songs as they aim to make use of every second of their set time. Next up is ‘Mountain Of Spit’ which dropped in 2023 and is another fast tempo song with distorted guitar and a fast drumbeat. There’s some serious foot-pedal action going tonight. During this tune there is a drop where he sings “You show me how to do it you show me how to do it” right before the drum kicks in again and they go mad on stage, totally rocking out, and are a captivating live band to watch! The next few songs are all unreleased and I believe are possibly titled ‘The Love Song’, ‘Sugar Crash’, ‘That Isn’t How You Do it’, ‘Bob Dylan Was On Pawn Stars In 2010’, and ‘Peter Hayes Are Not Who He Says He Is’. They certainly don’t slow down proceedings!
By the end of the set, the band look like they’ve been standing in a shower fully dressed in what they are wearing, due to the amount of rocking out they do, it’s very impressive!
The band must have high fitness levels due to the amount of exercise they do on stage. By this review, you can probably tell I had a very good time and I wasn’t the only one in the audience who had the same feeling!
Headliners are electro indie group The Itch, who were formed by Simon Tyrie on vocals, keys and synths and Georgia Hardy on drums. Tonight they are joined by two session musicians on bass and guitar. They place the drums towards the front of the stage tonight with Simon’s keyboard and synth set up next to the drum set, with the bassist at the back of the stage and the guitarist to the right. To be honest they could do with a bigger stage at The Great Escape next year.
I’ve seen them quite a few times, but not for around a year, so I was looking forward to seeing them again. Fans of LCD Soundsystem and The Rapture would love The Itch.
They released their ‘Space In The Cab’ single last week, and it’s this which kick starts the set with pumping electro beats and a hint of LCD Soundsystem. The chorus is very catchy and I can see this being a floorfiller by the time of next year’s Festival. They get the punters dancing and everyone is looking like they are having the times of their lives in this tiny dark and gloomy London pub basement! Their set is mesmerising and their beats are infectious.
Simon throws some shapes as he gets into the groove! There’s no chat between the songs as they make use of every second of their set time, and their set is mesmerising and their beats are infectious.
Georgia keeps the beats tight and looks like she’s enjoying every moment behind her drum set! Their set included songs such as last year’s ‘Ursula’ single with its rolling bassline that kickstarts the track as it slowly builds up. Simon sings “Ok, listen up; There’s only so much time; But hey – it’s gonna be all right” as he grasps the microphone stand with his eyes closed in a trance-like state. The song builds up until he sings “We can bitch about everything; We can put the world to rights; We could bring down the government; We could put their heads on spikes”. The drums kick in sending the audience wild! Next up is this year’s ‘Co-conspirator’ joint single (released with ‘The Influencer’), which has a small build up with a catchy intro before a pumping drum beat kicks in and as he sings, you can tell that Simon gets fully involved into the music, especially during the instrumental parts of the song, he’s like a man possessed dancing in a very David Byrne-esq way.
By the end of this sweaty East London basement gig, The Itch have everyone dancing, and judging by this performance they will need a much bigger stage and venue once word gets out! Go check them out at next year’s Great Escape Festival and you will definitely have a really good time!
