This Feeling’s Trampolene album tour rolled into The Hope & Ruin on Saturday night, showcasing some of Brighton’s finest up and coming bands along with a Trampolene headline set that had to be cut early due to curfew issues in a disappointing night for the band. They showed that they’re all about the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle, though, with lead singer Jack Jones continuing to play past the curfew.

Nicoteen opened on the night, to a pretty good sized crowd. Clearly influenced by The Libertines, they play plucky, serrated indie-rock that makes up in energy for its lack of originality. Single ‘Buggin’ Out’ is an impressive slice of indie-rock, with an intense chorus and throbbing bassline, while ‘Hyperventilate’ has a more garage rock tinge to it in the vein of The Parrots. The band gave a good account of what they’re about in a short amount of time.

Johnny Kills were up next. They’re a band who are starting to pick up some momentum and they were excellent on the night. Single ‘Let’s Talk About Me’ was their most positively received of the night. Played with miry, murky drums, which are rapidly unified with a two chord furious, buzzing guitar attack. This is joined by frenzied vocals and a trembling bass that makes The Hope & Ruin shake. This is good evidence of their entire set: fast, frenetic guitar music with bundles of energy.

Strange Cages, like most of the time they’re on a bill, win band of the night, though. The three-piece harness the sleaziest attributes of The Cramps and the wild nature of The Birthday Party. Described by themselves as “The Beach Boys without the beach”, they’re dark, gloomy and seedy in the best way possible. Songs such as ‘The Cracks’ and ‘Leader of a Cult’ are primal, animalistic cuts of squalid garage rock with a tinge of psychedelia. One of the highlights of the night, which shows the gang mentality of This Feeling gigs, was when lead singer Charlie, broke two strings halfway through their set and so Johnny Kills’ guitarist gave him his. It’s that sort of mindset that has kept This Feeling popular and thriving.

Arriving onstage to Swansea to Hornsey opening monologue ‘Artwork of Youth’, the band ripped into ‘Imagine Something Yesterday’, which is their most radio-friendly song to date. Instantly what was recognisable was Jack Jones’ fun nature. Whether it was arriving wearing a high visibility jacket shouting “Can you see me?”, or dancing in the crowd, or drinking people’s drinks, he had a high-octane spirit and looked like he was having fun in a ramshackle performance. Next up, they played biggest hits ‘Alcohol Kiss’ and ‘Beautiful Pain’, which got the biggest reactions of the night and then, that was it. They were cut off by the sound man.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t the best showcase of Trampolene due to this. Obviously they weren’t on long, but there was none of Jack Jones’ trademark spoken words such as ‘Ketamine’, as Jones seemed more interested in having fun than actually playing. However, they seem to have an immense fan base that actually didn’t care about any of this. Trampolene seem to be a band that enjoy the cult status and that’s certainly what they have right now. There aren’t many bands that could turn up to play for 15 minutes without there being riots. Instead, people stayed behind to chat with Jones and co, getting pictures and hugs. Nonetheless, as an album tour this was very disappointing.

Liam McMillen

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