NAIPIA + BLACK DOG COLLECTIVE – THE PRINCE ALBERT, BRIGHTON 21.03.19
Brighton is such a buzzing place musically and we are often spoilt for choice on which bands to go and see. Tonight was one such quandary as there were several concerts taking place, so I thought the best plan was to start at the Prince Albert with a pint of ‘Arise’ (from the Burning Sky Brewery in Firle) and see Black Dog Collective and Naipia, then head off down the hill to The Richmond Bar, to see Winter Gardens, whilst my colleague was covering the disco bands at the Brighton Centre. Read my Winter Gardens gig review HERE.
First up were Black Dog Collective who are a Brighton quintet made up of Daisie Morris (vocals), Cameron Morell (guitar), Jade Wildman (bass), Jack Keogh (guitar) and Aidan Henderson (drums).
Before I go any further, may I send out my utmost heartfelt congratulations to guitarist Cameron as not only was he playing the guitar rather well indeed and having a great sense of humour, but I suspect that quite a number of the packed crowd wouldn’t have even noticed the fact that Cameron is in fact blind! You are a total inspiration mate!
Black Dog Collective were born in January 2018 and have spent a year practising and crafting their indie rock-pop sound. Tonight they were performing only their second ever Brighton gig, but a large contingent in the mainly late teens early twenties crowd were obviously there to see this band.
They are fronted by their confident singer Daisie, who can be likened to having the friendly laryness of Adele with a voice akin to Sophie Ellis-Bextor. The band have a youthful energy and have already produced several catchy melodies. Jade is a dab hand at the bass and Jack sure knows how to play the guitar, whilst it’s all held together by Aidan on drums.
They played seven songs tonight including performing ‘Better Off’ for the first time live and gave an outing to their newest song ‘Another Life’ as well as their best known number ‘No Eye Deer’.
Yep, I would defo go and see these guys play live again as they played an enjoyable set.
The Black Dog Collective setlist:
‘Modern Love’, ‘No Eye Deer’, ‘Ghost’, ‘Better Off’, ‘Puzzle’, ‘Another Life’, ‘Regrets’.
More on the band HERE.
Next up were an energetic trio of Brighton based lads going by the name of Naipia. The band line up is George Dewhurst (guitar/vox), Harry Dewhurst (bass), and Matt Leppenwell (drums/vox) and their speciality is catchy indie rock, but with a definite pop edge.
I would anticipate that the lads got the band name from the city of Napier on North Island, New Zealand as songwriter George spent some time there and came back home and tweaked the name and created the band.
It seems as though these lads have also been practising quite a bit too as George certainly has that confident swagger about him as he struts around the stage in his special socks with a photo of his Basset Hound dog on them. But I guess that he and the boys were confident or buzzing as in January 2019 they released the single ‘Blues Town’, and at midnight tonight the follow-up single ‘I Tried’ was coming out.
Tonight, they played an enjoyable seven song set which included both the aforementioned singles and I can report that from the off with Matt’s glam rock style drumming intro on ‘See You On The Other Side’, that they are already a tight knit unit and seriously have great commercial potential. No wonder they are confident. If you like bands like The RPM’s, then Naipia need to be checked out. Their next Brighton gigs are at The Admiral on 24th May and then they are having an EP launch show at the Hope & Ruin on 13th June.
Naipia setlist:
‘See You On The Other Side’, ‘Warning Signs’, Message’, ‘Stick Insects’, ‘Blues Town’, ‘Repetition, ‘I Tried’.
More info on the band HERE.
Sadly I missed Brighton’s very own Last Seen Alive so will have to see them live next time.
So a big well done to Modern Age Music for putting on tonight’s gig of new emerging Brighton bands, as based on what I witnessed from Black Dog Collective and Naipia the future of the local scene is looking rather bright.
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