The recent string of incredible gigs happening at The Joker continues and it doesn’t look like it’s going to slow down any time soon. This time it was Australian mellow melody makers Good Morning filling out the upstairs of the London Road pub on Friday night.

The night began with the silky sounds of Super Lungs, an exciting local prospect. The band create simple but very addictive tunes, with relatable lyrics and a cool groove that had members of the audience swaying to their loose rhythms. However, the most memorable part of the set will unfortunately be a squabble that broke out between two crowd members – fighting it out during the opening act, a new experience for me – but once things had calmed, Super Lungs coolly continued with their gangly sound with a song called ‘Leave It All Behind’, rather fittingly.

Perhaps this is a phrase we overuse at Brightonsfinest, but there is an incredible amount of exciting local bands at the moment – the “much-hyped” Method Actress brilliantly filling the middle slot on the bill. Beginning with a droney industrial sound that set the atmosphere, the band propelled themselves into their post-punk kraut beat. Their emotionally-driven music stands on its own – a sound comparable to Morrissey having an existential crisis – with the band’s lead singer’s unparalleled vocal technique being as hard and rugged as it is light and delicate. With only one track online at the moment for us to hear, we were treated to a catalogue of new songs which got a great reaction from the crowd. However, at times there were tracks that lacked a little in substance and tended to rely on repetitive lyrics, a balance they have mastered on their debut single ‘Point Of View’.

The Melbourne-based headline act came on stage to a bursting and buzzy room, to showcase their recent “everything of” reissue (a term Liam from the band coined in our recent interview) called Glory + Shawcross. The calming nature of the band’s music had the crowd flowing in mellow waves from the off. Introspective lyrics seemed to capture the room’s mood, with everyone losing themselves deep in the gangly guitar interplay and drifting bass melodies. Yet it wasn’t all just the relaxed rhythms we’ve heard on their releases up to now, more upbeat tracks had the crowd bobbing around the room in a surprising fashion. For a band who have had two mildly received DIY-sounding EPs, it was remarkable the amount of love the crowd were giving the band – cheering at the start of certain songs, videoing others and even singing the lyrics. In the midst of beautiful harmonies between the two main vocalists, Stefan and Liam even looked in disbelief at the moment they found themselves in, after what has been a very successful tour around Europe and the UK. It is kind of understandable when you hear the dreamy and incredibly catchy music Good Morning create.

Iain Lauder

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