Splashh

It’s been a while but I managed to get to another gig this week. I got two tickets for free but not because of my high standing in the music journalism world but thanks to a little competition on the Facebook page of the Brudenell Social Club in Leeds.

I saw headliners Splashh open for Spector nearly exactly a year ago and they were raw, shaky and far too keen to emphasise their stoner coolness. This was typified by how one of them was struggling to play a couple of notes on the keyboard to accompany their fuzzy guitar tones. After seeing the other support band Swim Deep at the same venue earlier this year I felt obliged to see if Splashh had also made the step up.

It was a more composed performance but it still felt something was missing. Most of the crowd just stood still, politely nodding their head and stroking their newly formed beard. Songs like ‘All I Wanna Do’ clearly show they have potential. On a couple of the tunes, they elongated them to try and prove their psychedelic credentials but in reality it just made the set drag on a bit. With songs titles like ‘Sun Kissed Bliss’ and ‘Vacation’ it is not surprising to learn that the band consists of members from New Zealand and Australia as well as a Brit. When frontman Sasha Carlson sings ‘I wanna go where nobody knows’ on the latter, there is a bit of menace there and this was a feature throughout. The vocals are a bit gravelly but this doesn’t mean it should be compared to a certain frontman from Manchester called Liam. It is clear that this band gets their influences from a number of different places. The set is catchy but still feels a little dirty which in rock bands is not necessarily a bad thing.

Unfortunately this cannot be said for support band Charlie Boyer & The Voyeurs. I had read about them, seen their name mentioned in NME so was full of expectation. What appeared was a band more bothered about their seventies haircuts, ultra skinny jeans and black turtlenecks. The sound was poor but not as bad as their crowd banter ‘Hi….erm yeah that’s about it’. The crowd was quite small as the gig was on a Monday night but it was largely full of students. Their lack of enthusiasm and general mediocrity was disappointing from a band signed to a trendy record label like Heavenly Recordings.