Uncle Blowfish
Live (Hostile Superheroes / Psyattica)
Braving a rather nippy night, punters clambering up the stairs into Brighton’s Pressure Point were in for something of a teenage dream-team line up, featuring three fresh-faced groups each plying their own particular style, with enough energy to defrost the drinks cabinets.
Hostile Superheroes were up first, shunning capes and exposed undies for a far preferable black-shirted look. Their opening track was something of a Transvision Vamp style number with both chords and melody nodding towards an influence that, judging by their ages, must have been gained either in the maternity ward or on VH1 classics.
If the first song was a coincidence, it’s almost impossible to believe that the ‘Basket Case’ chord progression wasn’t lifted off of Greenday’s ‘Dookie’ LP and tweaked to create the Hostile’s second track. However, its fair to say that throughout the set there was plenty of innovation and tons of ability, along with the stunning chop-change style that they stamped on the songs which certainly added some flair to the performance.
Psyattica stepped up next and banged out a set of heavy rock songs that added the intelligence of The Early November to the raw aggression of a meaty two guitar line up. Both the second track and the final track in their set were hugely appealing, demonstrating some of the best elements of Psyattica’s sound, which on the whole seems to be getting harder and more focussed than their older material.
The only downside to their set was in the third song where the addition of capos to the third fret of the guitars and bass caused an instant tuning problem that made things awkward for the frontman. However, this was the only slip up in a thundering collection of angsty rock songs.
Headliners, Uncle Blowfish, treated the crowd to a fun performance with plenty of interaction and cheeky banter between the four band members. They also injected loads of new material in to their performance with several tracks taken from their freshly released LP ‘The Morning After’.
Established favourites such as ‘Here I Go Again’ were big crowd pleasers, while ‘Goodbye’ and ‘Seven Reasons’ proved that the new material stands up to the high standards set by the ‘Fusion Monkey’ EP. There were a couple of minor technical hitches (usually termed the ‘slippery hand-cream effect’) but these didn’t halt the pace and energy of the set.
With so many great hooks and infectious melodies, Uncle Blowfish have a radio-ready sound that needs no hype or spin… If you play it, they will sing along!
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