I am so loving the return of live music, I think that might be the single thing that I missed most during all these Covid lockdowns. Tonight was a headline slot for Seagoth, an act that is new to me, what did I think of Seagoth? Well read on dear reader, I need to tell you about the support bands first. Kicking proceedings off was Seattle On The Mantle, band names are definitely getting stranger and more surreal these days aren’t they? I really thought I wouldn’t like this lot, first impression, unfairly based on the way they looked was Mumford and Sons who I am not a fan of. Then the first tune seemed to be an amalgam of so many identikit provincial indie bands from the early noughties. But to their absolute credit, Seattle On The Mantle definitely grew on me and won me over. Their songs are most definitely story songs, seemingly about everyday life. At times the lyrics teetered towards cliche but quickly stepped up to be clinically clever, and I mean that in a good way. Musically it would be very difficult to fault them. The sound is jangly indie with a 60s pop sensibility. You have to love their wonderfully weird and warped sense of humour too. Dedicating songs to “living legends” such as John Lennon, Dennis Wilson, David Bowie, and Leonard Cohen was darkly hilarious. Now I really need to check out this band’s recorded output.
Next on stage were Honeytrap who are getting a fair amount of hype and exposure at the moment. I reckon I can sum up their performance in just two words, fucking awesome! However that would be lazy on my part, so I won’t, although I stand by the sentiment because Honeytrap is a fucking awesome band. They Channel the Verve at their early ‘Mad Richard’ peak and vocalist Kell Chambers’s voice hits the highest rock peaks with apparent ease. As well as a Richard Ashcroft influence I sensed the rawer vocal aspects of Kurt Cobain in there too. The songs seem to be sad laments, but delivered with forceful emotion and set to some howling, high-class rock music. Guitarist Will Daniels is clearly a talented guitar player and he also uses his effects pedals wonderfully. For me, Daniels’s talent is akin to that of the magnificent Bernard Butler in his Suede heyday. I felt he even added a prog injection at times. There were many high points in this set, but I must single out the immaculate performance of “Candles” which is a stunning, atmospheric, anthemic rock masterpiece of a song. You need this band in your life right now!
Unless you are familiar with Seagoth, and I wasn’t until tonight, you could be forgiven for thinking that it was something to do with the Whitby Goth weekend, but it isn’t. Seagoth is singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Georgia Ochoa. Is this the finest dreamy, psyched-up, indie, dance pop in the world? Probably. Georgia is a true musical genius and she has surrounded herself with a supremely talented band. They are all good but the bass player (apologies, I can’t find her name anywhere) is off the scale good. I have seen some great bass players over the years; Flea, Bootsy Collins, Stanley Clarke, Lemmy, Tina Weymouth, Peter Hook and Bernard Edwards to name just a few and this lady definitely goes into the list. She treats her bass like a proper instrument and not just a supporting tool! I have a little rant I need to make too, why do people come to a gig and disappear after their mates band has played? So many of you missed a fabulous set from Seagoth who in my opinion will go on to play much bigger venues, especially festivals. Melvin Benn are you reading this? The new Seagoth EP is pretty special too, click here to check it out on Spotify.
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