Friday night at the Green Door Store rarely fails to impress. Not only is the crowd in party mood for the beginning of the weekend, but bands usually bring their top game to the stage. With it being the cassette launch for Projector’s double A-side single, they went the extra mile – creating “perhaps the best local grunge line-up our city has seen in years”, to quote one of the crowd members, as well as transforming the Green Door Store into a place of surreal wonderment with plants and old TVs scattered around the stage.

Arriving late after lining my stomach to prepare for the evening’s fun, I only caught the final moments of Murmur’s opening set. With just a little glimpse at one of the newer bands on Brighton’s live scene it reaffirmed our love for the former Brightonsfinest radio track of the week.

Loa Loa were the next band to put the speakers through their paces, bringing with them some hummus to the stage – “it looks like it’s ours but it’s really for you”. The band, whose name you should never search on Google Images, have created one of the most unmistakable hardcore sounds in Brighton. It’s extremely loud, raw and a totally bewildering experience in the best possible way, that never lets you go, except for brief moments of pause in between songs. With a set mainly featuring new tunes, as well as the odd few golden oldies such as ‘Landslide’, the band leaked that they were working on an album that will be out at “some point” – very exciting indeed.

A band that has been gaining a lot of hype around Brighton in recent times are Sick Joy, being one of our highlights from this year’s 234 Festival. Playing a far more measured and polished sound than we had seen previously on the stage, but just as enthralling. It may not necessarily be a particularly new sound the band make, taking a lot of influence from the best 90s guitar music had to offer, but it is done really, really well. In fact, the set was made up of banger after banger. Singer Mykl Barton’s voice is one that I’m sure will be blaring out of festival mainstage speakers in the not too distant future, being the perfect blend of Chris Cornell’s powerful sound and Kurt Cobain’s emotional pull, and would have left a lasting mark on everyone who saw their set.

With much anticipation and glee around the room as Projector came on stage, they launched themselves into a blisteringly strong start with the atmosphere in the room rising to its highest point of the night. There was a darker edge to the band’s post-punk’ish music than we hear on their recordings, taking the shape of a grungy horror sound that dominated the room. Lyrics were shared between male (guitar) and female (bass) vocals, an incredible combination of gentle harmonies and raucous screaming emotion. The band staggered from left to right, lost in their woozy rock as the crowd head-nodding got ever fiercer, locked into the phenomenal driving beat set by their staggeringly good drummer. In a set that felt like the shortest headline set ever, the stand out tracks were the singles that the night was celebrating – ‘Dreaming’ showcased the melodic might Projectors have at their disposal, whilst the powerful groove in ‘Love’ gives a window into just how great this band from Brighton could be.

Iain Lauder
Photos by Todd McConnochie

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