Bleach is, without a shadow of a doubt, the hottest venue in Brighton. When at full capacity in the middle of summer like it was last Friday night, it’s easy to break into a sweat standing completely stationary. The gallons of perspiration that must be being produced collectively by both the bands and the audience create a dank and humid atmosphere. Something only heightened by the doom-laden riffs and a murky over-driven bass tone that makes up the sound of headliners Tigercub.

 

Tonight is a release party for the bands new double A-side single out on the Too Pure Singles Club and there’s a celebratory feel to the evening. Something the band capitalize on by using ‘The Final Countdown’ by Europe as an entrance song, complete with strobe lighting and all. It’s a gesture that shows the band is happy to bask in the well-deserved attention, but they’re doing it with their tongue placed firmly in their cheek. Quickly the eighties cheese is interrupted by an encroaching blast of feedback and distortion, bringing a shift in tone as the band waste no time launching into their set. Lead vocalist Jamie sings with a sarcastic snarl to his voice that perfectly compliments the irreverent tone of many of the songs such as ‘Bittersweet motherfucker’ with its stop-start guitar line and ‘Trendsetters’, which Jamie dedicates to the “East London wankers” we’re all familiar with.

 

Earlier songs such as ‘Centrefold’ and ‘Blue Blood’ get a strong reaction but the songs that make up their new double A-side, and close their set, show a real progression and growing confidence. They have a complexity to them that doesn’t sacrifice the immediacy of their hook driven song writing. ‘You’ opens with broken chords and Jamie ominously uttering “wade into the water/like the lamb led to the slaughter” before the song gradually builds to its riff driven crescendo.

 

Its an intense but energizing show and I leave the venue feeling like I’ve just gone through some kind of new-age detox from the amount of water my body has lost. The overall feeling you’re left with is of witnessing a band whose only direction from here is up.
 

Louis Ormesher

Photos by: Tom Barlow Brown