This Feeling brought an eclectic array of talent to The Hope and Ruin tonight in its usual style. For a night that celebrates itself based upon the endearing venture of bringing guitar rock’n’roll back to the masses, it is a slight step aside from what Brighton normally produces. It was music more in tune with an older crowd; it fit the Saturday night fever that was erupting at the time and there’s a lot of beauty in what they are doing here. When it produces talent, it really rockets as a night putting forward some of the best in the industry – see the likes of Blossoms, Little Barrie and James Skelly and The Intenders. For this reason, it’s always an exciting prospect when it comes to the city, coated in Jack Daniel’s and enthusiastic crowds.

Bodies hurried upstairs into a busy, busy venue for the support band The Fuses. It was hard to decipher whether these were just mates brought along by the frontman who was apparently goading them throughout or whether they were genuine fans. Either way it’s irrelevant as the five-piece leapt at the challenge with their charismatic swagger, musically finding roots in Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and wearing them upon their sleeve with pride. It’s raucous and riff heavy, quick to the point and leaps at you with the unbridled ferocity of a rampant wolf.

Next up were The Wholls, a band who are hotly tipped for big and bright things in the future, recently hyped by various big music pieces around the country, drilling the chin strokers' excitement to go and see them. The Bedford four-piece were dealt a bit of an unfortunate card from the off as for some reason half the venue had evacuated downstairs to the bar for some unbeknown reason leading to quite the uncomfortable start for the group. Kicking into singles such as ‘X21’ and ‘Angry Faces’ show the obvious potential this group do run with. They can put together big hooks and huge choruses and just listening to ‘X21’ live brings with it the same swagger as the likes of Kasabian did back in their early days. I guess the relevance is just trying to piece what they are doing now into the modern day; it’s good by all means, just not necessarily doing that much for progression.

‘Angry Faces’, when played tonight, shows all the elements of the spit and angst it promises on record but it kind of stumbles and comes out more like a 14-year-old getting full of himself at his first football match after having a half pint of lager. It doesn’t pose the same threat that the recorded version does and this seems to be an accumulation of the quickly depleted crowd that have managed to bring the atmosphere crashing down like a lead balloon and with the lack of charisma and presence onstage, there’s not much going asides from four chaps playing their instruments onstage. As a song ‘Angry Faces’ plays around with a variety of influences. There seem to be hints of Cage The Elephant, touches of Jamie T whilst once again relying on that Brit-pop revival feel that surrounds much of the night. All the pieces are there for what should generally create something huge, and it’s not to say it can’t, it just seems to be a mixture of the wrong venue for them and nobody to necessarily play with. If it was a smaller venue, it may have suited better, they may have been able to generate some form of energy and intrigue.

The band are still in their early stages though and with a bit more fine tuning they are not far off. They began to prove by the end of the set that they are worth getting excited about as the music developed on the big choruses of ‘X21’. That mid-00s American groove in the vein of The Von Bondies and The Raconteurs was discovered and rediscovered as it became evident that their confidence was starting to be found, it was just a shame it was too little too late. Still, the group return for The Great Escape and who knows, the venue will hopefully be busier, clearly something that all the members find confidence in. There’s more to The Wholls than they showed tonight; it was lukewarm but let’s see how they return in May.
Tom Churchill