This Feeling have a particular set of skills and they know how to use them. Riding off the back of the indie boom of the mid-noughties, they essentially put on gigs featuring ‘lads with guitars’ but they have done a very good job of giving very good bands their start on the live circuit. The ‘Alive Tour’ brought together three of their most famous names along with a local band opening the show. This tour arrived at Patterns with The Shimmer Band, Bang Bang Romeo, BlackWaters and Sons rocking the little venue.

Local punk duo made up of brothers Lee and Nick Meldrum Sons’ incendiary punk opened the night with a bang. For a two-piece they certainly know how to make a lot of noise. New single ‘Zealot’ is reminiscent of Drenge’s earlier work, while their set on the whole has a Demob Happy vibe to it. They’re not the most original band, but they’re brash, fierce and a very tight live unit.

The same can be said of Guildford rockers BlackWaters, who are a similar band in tone but it's clear their influences are more American. Singles such as ‘Fuck Yeah’ and ‘Jarr’ed Up Generation’, which get huge reactions from the crowd including some crowd surfing, sound like they’ve come straight from the American punk scene in the ilk of the Dead Kennedys, FIDLAR and Ramones. There’s a Cabbage vibe to their live aura too, with frontman Maximilian Tanner stomping around the stage and jumping the barrier and joining the crowd.

Bang Bang Romeo were perhaps the most unique band on the lineup. The Doncaster trio mix bluesy rock ‘n’ roll with singer Anastasia Walker’s soulful, powerful voice. Walker’s voice is an absolute behemoth: raw, brooding and deeply beautiful, but their music, in comparison, feels a little bit lame. There’s a definite Tarantino vibe to it but it’s been bettered by other bands, Brighton’s Black Honey in particular.

Headlining, and certainly the best band on the bill, were Bristol’s The Shimmer Band who make explosive psychedelic-rock with that added brash Gallagher-style arrogance. The difference here, though, is The Shimmer Band have the musicality, style and panache to back up the arrogance. Donning a rain mac and Kurt Cobain-style glasses, swaggering frontman Tom Newman, looks every bit the frontman. More importantly, though, he sounds terrific. He’s got that loud, nasally, throaty voice that wouldn’t be out of place in huge stadiums. It’s not hard to see why the Stereophonics handpicked them to open the show on their big homecoming date a few years back.

Opening with gigantic single ‘What is Mine?’ it’s clear to see The Shimmer Band have a whole fusion of musical influences, no doubt coming from their background in the multicultural city of Bristol. ‘What is Mine?’ has reggae and dub vibes, while ‘Sunkick’ has a U2 stadium rock vibe. Most importantly, the band on the whole are a strong, compact machine where every member plays their part. Bass player Tom Kuras is at the heart of everything, though, and his domineering basslines give The Shimmer Band their euphoric, immense sound. Ending on ‘Shoot Me (Baby)’, which received the biggest singalong of the night, staked their claim as the most exciting band in the country right now. Ultimately, This Feeling put on a trademark night that only they could do, with exciting new bands getting their chance and fans that just love music and are looking for the next big thing – and they make it look so easy.

Liam McMillen

Website: theshimmerband.com
Facebook: facebook.com/theshimmerband
Twitter: twitter.com/theshimmerband

Read our interview with The Shimmer Band: https://brightonsfinest.com/html/index.php/new-music-interviews/1942-the-shimmer-band-interview-2016