Big Deal were to make their return to the frontier of British music tonight, a city also home to their new label, FatCat Records. Since their last performance in Brighton, their time as a group has certainly been put through various trials and tribulations with the dismantling of relationships and departure of band members. What this has lead to which is heavily touched upon with their latest LP Say Yes, is a newly found assertiveness and zeal within their music. It seems that what used to tiptoe in romantic circles has now found a more sufficient stride – it appears that this frustration throughout the process of their third LP has lead for a group with a bit more, well, gusto about themselves. It is a marked nod to early-90s grunge whilst taking the best of a pop-sensibility to skirmish with it.

With this new LP and tour, it certainly feels as if there is a significant amount of expectation in the crowd tonight. The audience stands large but consistently seems to swell as the door of The Hope and Ruin flicks open and more and more bodies pile in to catch support band, Beachtape. It could be suggested that the vast majority of those in the room are friends of the band who have been fortunate enough to swipe a cheap ticket, nevertheless, they have done the decent thing and shown up to catch their mates’ band on a Saturday night. Beachtape are a band that perhaps are beginning to show they have legs to progress in the Brighton music scene Their music drifts hazily around the likes of Yuck and Beach Fossils with its quasi-shoegaze riffs that lurk in every other chorus or so. The stand out strength of Beachtape however lies within the rhythm section, with a drummer that brings such force into the sound and a bassist that matches him toe for toe, it gives a real solidity to the band that pushes their sound harder, giving it their unique point of sale. Their set shows coherency even when it struggles to find variation, there is the consistent return to phrasing choruses around an overarching guitar riff. Nevertheless when this works, it is excellent such as on ‘Skipping Sleep Again’.

In typical fashion, the swarm of bodies vacate the venue to make the regular pilgrimage outside for the post-support, pre-headline cigarette break as if it was practically part of the setlist in itself causing the absent crowd to miss the first half of the opening song. As the band look to find their comfort in the set, it suggests they now feel more at home within the caustic sound as opposed to their previous, more tepid material. The likes of ‘Avalanche’ boast with walloping guitar cuts that are reminiscent of early 90s doom, as maiming guitar sections hit you with the force of a school bully. These winding blows similarly edge around the likes of ‘Say Yes’ and ‘Hold Your Fire’. What is immediate from the off is that Big Deal have now found a way to make these gigs more like challenges rather than sultry affairs. You certainly feel at the mercy when the set cuts between Kacey Underwood’s more damaging guitar sections.

“Can you turn the lights down please? Oh you, mighty light man, master of the lights” – Kacey Underwood, one half of Big Deal, does the evening’s job of tying humour into the event. Yells of “I love you!” from the crowd leave Kacey looking bewildered on-stage before replying; “I’m American, I don’t understand English very well. Can you not tell?” It is this humour of his that is infectious but similarly detestable with Alice Costelloe, the other half of Big Deal. It is this tense relationship between the two that certainly ebbs and flows within the set, you can see manifestations of past tenderness as the group delve into earlier material such as ‘Cool Like Kurt’. At times it becomes unsightly as they pass sarcastic smiles and snide comments towards one another, at one point Underwood tells Costelloe to “stop talking now.”

The set was bolstered from the start and grew slightly more tepid towards the end. Stand out songs from the set lurked around the anthemic riffs that the duo can twist together around their interchanging vocals. The phenomenal groove put forward within Costelloe’s guitar in ‘V.I.T.R.I.O.L’ soared with the grace of a jet fighter underneath Underwood’s rumbling guitar, this theme continued throughout the likes of ‘Don’t Forget’. However when the set grew tired it fell past snoozing into a woozy lucidity. The downsides to the set drifted around the likes of ‘Saccharine’ and ‘Veronica’. These show that tenderness to Big Deal that they previously documented on their debut, Lights Out, however they do little to enthuse the crowd this evening, more or less acting as a break between the heavier, engaging segments. Perhaps because the relationship between the two has broken down since, they feel slightly lethargic and neglected in the energy put in.

The emotional tenderness that the duo are able to dictate to one another onstage leads for sentiment, it is clear to see the heartache and energy that has gone into their newer material. Ultimately, this all gives a very human element to these mythical humans called musicians. As Costelloe declares that somebody in the crowd has the prettiest face she has ever seen, Underwood jumps to detect who it is – there is a deep bond between the two, tense in its nature but if it leads for more albums like Say Yes, it is certainly the reason for fuelling some of their greatest pieces of music.
Tom Churchill

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