Elevant
A taster for the upcoming Wrong Festival, Getintothis’ Shaun Ponsonby finds an atmosphere alternating between intense and chilled.
This writer always forgets what a totalitarian state Heebie Jeebies/EBGBS becomes at night. It’s hard to get in if you don’t carry photographic identification around with you at all times. It doesn’t appear to be for age restrictions, as I’m with beard so that much should be obvious. Perhaps it is because, as we all know, it is literally impossible to cause trouble if you have ID with you and if you don’t, you are definitely going to glass someone.
Not being able to enter, we had to wait for a friend who did have identification, which sadly meant we missed the first act, Gravves, entirely. It is especially infuriating seeing as we heard great things from the crowd who did see them (sorry, guys!).
Thankfully, we did manage to see Newcastle’s Coquin Migale – and the juvenile delinquents inside us really hope that is pronounced “Cock In My Girl” (guffaw!). Front man Alex Soper began acoustically, slowly drawing the crowd in before being joined by the rest of the band. It was a pretty eclectic set, and even though they flew off into different directions, they maintained a pop sensibility at their core.
We have seen Elevant described as a “psych outfit”, but that doesn’t quite feel right. Sure, they have that element to them, but their sound is more of melting pot than that. The brooding side of their music is off-set by a light at the end of the tunnel, and it ain’t no on-coming train.
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Perhaps this is at least partially down to the enthusiasm of the band themselves. Front man Michael Edward presents himself somewhere between laid back and intense, and the chemistry he has with bassist Hannah Lodge is palpable.
They are also not above humour (which is always a relief); at the end of heavy, epic closer Nothing, in the moment you would expect the most intense of pay-offs, we were instead treated to Shave and a Haircut. Whether it was off the cuff or not, we don’t know, but it is the kind of playful end to a set that this writer often longs for.
All in all, it felt like the band themselves were cutting loose for their first gig of the year, and as a consequence, they absolutely nailed it.
Loner Noise were responsible for tonight’s bill, and given that they are the brains behind the upcoming Wrong Festival, we couldn’t help but feel like tonight was a something of a taster for what we can expect in April. As it should be with any event tag lined “A festival for the freakscene”, we didn’t necessarily get a concrete answer.
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