Sausau
Starting off the evening with a gruellingly stripped back
acoustic session, Sausau sung some original material and a selection off
brilliant covers. The singer used his haunting vocals to completely change the
Ozzie Tame Impala track ‘Feels Like We Only Go Backwards’ into a simplistic
bare bones ballad. The crowd was 50% his mates, heckling him and asking for
covers of ‘Jolene’ by Dolly Parton.
Char Goodfellow
The second acoustic act came from Char Goodfellow. With
strong playing skills and a fantastic voice her set sounded exceptional. After
a few strong originals singing about the woes of being a teenager Char moved
onto some brilliant up to date covers. Firstly, The Wytches ‘Crying Clown’. She
took the creepy and ethereal nature of the debut album Annabel Dream Weaver and
turned it up to 100, lines like ‘graveyard girl swinging her bag like a
pendulum’ stuck even when understated. Next up was Peace’s anthem ‘Wraith’,
usually incomprehensible sung by Harry Koisser Char made the lyrics the most
important part of the song. And the crowd loved it.
Manatee!
A band hailing from my own college were up next. They were
also the first ones on the packed sweatbox that was called the main stage,
perfect for the events to come. The three piece specialised in tongue and cheek
lyrics with a pop edge. Lead singer Joe Alexander came on stage donned in a
garden centre fleece and ripped through a set sending the crowd into feel good
vibes. The slight American twang was different and the beg for a glockenspiel/violinist/synth
player was entertaining to say the least. A highlight was an embarrassed cover
of ‘Call Me Maybe’ which sounded bizarrely fantastic in the hands of Manatee!.
Annabel Allum
The second stage was intimate as it was, but as the Guildford
based singer got on stage the whole room shrunk to the size of an airing
cupboard when we heard her voice. With musical talent rivalling fellow redhead
King Krule and a voice I cannot describe how strong, Annabel Allum is onto a
winner. With tunes reminiscent of Everything But The Girl the audience were
stunned into a silence as me and my friend shed a single tear. A favourite song
was certainly ‘Foxes’, described as ‘well the media just portray foxes to just
kill babies and shit, but we don’t know anything about they just do their
thing’.
WIKER
The first band to bring the heat to the Alldayer was WIKER,
another local band with a razor sharp edge and tunes to match. The set started
with the frontman complaining that the hairdresser ‘fucked up his top knot’ and
completed their set at breakneck speed. Although from Fleet the songs had the
vibes reminiscent of the bands like Cage The Elephant. Although there were no
Mark Hoppus stage dives the energy was still there as the band captured our
imagination.
Dazy Chain
While watching Dazy Chain my mind was telling me ‘this
shouldn’t work’ but the low-fi sound works with enough trippy imagination.
Starting off with a bold Stone Roses cover, they changed up the entire
masterpiece to make it rock. Through the set we were treated to a selection of
refreshing experimentalism that got me moving. The unarguable highlight was a
cover of ‘Boys Don’t Cry’, which oozed cool.
A band to look out for.
Seers
As the night began to draw in, we were treated to a
performance by Seers. Not only were the
three experts in crazed free flowing indie, they had the coolest hair in
Aldershot. Guitarist and singer: strong beard game and simple short cut,
Drummer: full afro and mutton chops calling back the 70s and the bassist had no
face- just hair. In all seriousness, Seers rocked the main stage like no one
else. With killer riffs and a sound like they are stuck in space with the sex
drive of Alex Turner you couldn’t help but want to move. What was even greater
was that they didn’t stop, the band just went on and on for a full 30 minutes.
It was like watching The Wytches take tonnes of MDMA and let them loose on some
instruments. Wild stuff.
Vinyl Staircases
After the best haircuts in music we had the best dressed.
Vinyl Staircases had obviously raided the 1960s for both style and sound as
lary shirts and psych donned the young band. The two brothers taking honours of
vocals sounded fantastic, and the laid back tunes relaxed the tiring crowd and
truly did get select bunches of people properly dancing to the Surrey
band. They were my standout band of the
night, the Tame Impala-esque’s new material sounding stunning.
Native People
The pre-cursor to headline act Best Friends who I missed due to my eardrums being completely knackered (don't go to three gigs in three days). The unapologetically pop orientated band who sound not to dissimilar to The 1975 (in a non wanky Matt Healey way). Their music is instantly feel good and fun. Lead singer Reuben Todd was more than keen to get the crowd going, engaging in good banter with the crowd (in a non football hooligan way). Native People are a fantastic band who have huge things in front of them, the Kent boys could be on the way to fame quite soon.
