By Ewan Bissell
Everyone was in a cheery mood at Crofters Rights on Sunday night. I think it was because Phoebe Morris was hanging around. The Trench Mouth singer has such an infectiously merry glow and it was rubbing off on everyone around.
She was setting up a stall with the greater Trench Mouth collective. This army of partners, parents and punks turned out to help promote their first headline show, and flog some of their gorgeous new merch.
I went and spoke to Ollie who was Alpaca’s rep for the night, and he told me about all the trouble. They’d been let down by a few things, but in true show-must-go-on spirit everyone pitched in and managed to pull together a gig.
The stall was getting busy too, and soon enough Crofters was full of people donning Trench Mouth T-shirts with matching stickers.
I managed to grab the members of Vellum briefly for they were due to start for quick chinwag. Their bassist was missing, it was an impromptu debut gig after all, but were still confident of putting on a good show.
“We met in school” said Josh, the singer. “We always used to play music together and we were finally in the same city so thought, why not?”
Josh and Hayden, drummer, had spent eight years apart until recently reuniting in Bristol, and set their sights quickly on the music scene.
When it came to influences Josh cited Rabea Massaad as a key one for him as a guitarist. And it showed straight away as he repeatedly lays down these devastating guitar lines. He was riffing on a white strat that produced overbearing, ominous feedback almost passively.
The duo settled into their instrumental set and didn’t lose any momentum through the performance, which is always so crucial to success for a duo. Hayden was lashing at his drums, during one more complex breakdown he released a nasty crack at his snare that rang around Crofters like a gunshot.
When the drums do come in a bit tighter and more controlled though Josh’s guitar playing is measured and intelligent enough to carry all that hard earned momentum and either dictate back to his partner, or launch a new section entirely.
The music eventually reached a dark and domineering tone. The helter skelter guitar mangled and distorted itself and even started dipping into a more loopy psychedelic sound.
As brilliant as they were as a duo I would’ve loved to see how their bassist would’ve informed this dynamic that has a lot of long-term chemistry that’s been built up. They were technically excellent without betraying the feeling and mood that is so key to their style, and are certainly one to watch in the coming weeks and months.
You can keep up with all things Vellum on Instagram @vellumbandofficial.
FFO: Nelson, Soundgarden, Rush
In the interval I traipsed down the deathtrap Crofters staircase for a slash and came across Phoebe and Laura half slathered in their classic red makeup.
“It was just a persona at first” Laura and Phoebe told me, earlier that night.
Trench Mouth began almost experimentally.
“We thought to ourselves – we’re gonna cover ourselves in paint, we’re gonna play crazy music, we’re gonna be outrageous.”
Part of it was this ridiculous red and white paint, but Phoebe lamented the more sensible quantities they’d been using recently.
“I can’t use so much paint anymore. I go through so many clothes. It gets in my eyes!”
And yet here they were in all their scarlet glory, embracing the old look for their first anniversary.
They took to the stage and Hayden got reacquainted with the drum stool he’d grown to know quite well during his set with Vellum. He was pulling double duty, of course this time with a band of red across his eyes.
Laura wielded this showstopping Schecter guitar as they started into their first tune. Phoebe’s voice is titanic, and as the song accelerated she skitted on the mic.
He loves me, he loves me not/He loves me! He loves me!
As the song opened out into the chorus you realise just how much heavy lifting the guitar is doing, as much like the earlier act Trench Mouth played without bass guitar. The descending guitar line combined with its fuzzed out, weirdly delayed tone made for an intense soundscape alongside the pounding drums. It half reminded me of The Fall’s I Am Damo Suzuki, but somehow achieving a more confrontative sound.
Phoebe has this righteous power to her performance – her crazed fans lapping it all up as they bounced off each other in the mosh and headbanging to the breakdowns as the band reeled off the hits.
Those included Bunny Boiler, a fresh tune about a homewrecker that features some great interplay between the vocals and the drums and a cheeky little double-time section as well as a lilting lullaby bridge.
Arf Arf Arf ratcheted things up even more, an absolutely sour mood was in the air and every member of Trench Mouth and the accumulated crowd got really feral really quickly. It helps when you’ve been able to build up such a good rapport with your audience but Phoebe looked like the ringleader for a riot as the gig reached its climax, conducting a rabid crowd to within an inch of catastrophe and then letting them all back down again.
It was over as quickly as it had started, and as the punters filed out all that was left was the empty room as if nothing had ever happened.
I felt a bit of a sinking feeling, but remembered my conversation with the band earlier.
“We’d played in other bands before but there was never a spark.”
Seeing Trench Mouth at the peak of their powers reminded me of how bands can just click sometimes. Their paint was just a persona thing at first, but on Sunday night it drew something out of them that was free and wild and magic. And then you realise they don’t need the paint anymore. It makes for a beautiful scene.
“This feels right, and it’s so easy.”
You can catch Trench Mouth next at the Golden Lion on April 5th, and you can keep up to date with them on Instagram @trench_mouth_band
FFO: Jane’s Addiction, Alice In Chains, RHCP
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