Aldershot Alldayer, Review

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.