One
with the daughter of the house before a run of gigs with my little man! I’d
picked up on purported “Gen Z icon” Beabadoobee, pseudonym of Brit/ Filipino
singer/ songwriter Beatrice Kristi Laus, thanks to her 2020 debut album proper,
“Fake It Flowers” which fitted in well with a whole clutch of female fronted powerpoppy
band discoveries of that year (Soccer Mommy, Tiny Stills and so on) with some
dreamy post-grungy college pop, principally recalling Boston’s Juliana Hatfield
and her pre-solo band, the excellent Blake Babies. Jami liked it too, so we
booked tix for this one before she released her sophomore effort “Beatopia”
earlier this year, this one being a more low-key and slower grower for me but
still featuring some chunky powerpop which should come across well “live”…
This
one was a sell-out too, so we decided to get there as early as possible, which
still meant a pick-up after Jami’s Aerial Silks session and a swift drive down
a dusky and damp M4. Bad traffic in Bristol however saw us parking at a frustrating
20 minutes after doors, and we exited Trenchard Street car park to be confronted
with a massive queue going down the hill, doubling around the load-in area as
well! Thank fuck for O2 Priority entrance, I muttered as we swanned past the
snaking queue and got in, only to find… the place was already rammed! With the
floor already chock full of Bea’s frenzied massive, we headed upstairs,
grabbing the last bit of barrier overlooking the stage, extreme stage left.
Clearly I underestimated the appeal of this young performer, a point underlined
by my server at the top bar informing me that people had been queueing up at 10
a.m. for this one! Furthermore, even the appearance onstage of a mic check
roadie was cheered to the rafters… this place is going to go off the scale when
the headliner emerges…!
Openers,
New York trio Pretty Sick, took the stage at 8 to probably the loudest ovation
of their career to date, kicking into an opener which totally appropriated the
drumbeat from The Stone Roses’ “I Am The Resurrection” but settled into a down
and dirty grungy Babes In Toyland screamalong. Subsequent numbers, including
their drum-dominated, sleazoid best song “Devil In Me” were generally
mid-paced, balancing tinges of messy grunge and discordant college pop,
strongly recalling Veruca Salt, with vocalist Sabrina Fuentes’ gravelly vocal
inflections also resembling Shireen of The Slingbacks! Mining a similar seam to
my current faves Francis Of Delirium, albeit without the quality of tuneage, I
liked them fine whilst acknowledging their application to be on the soundtrack
of “Singles” is about 30 years too late…!
The
90’s slacker grunge mood continued between bands, as the P.A played the likes
of Pixies, Dinosaur Jr. and even Sonic Youth’s Carpenters tribute “Superstar”
to pass the time! The place was fit to burst, and the lights smashing to black
at 9 p.m. sharp was greeted with deafening screams. Laudably, young Beatrice
took the stage at the same time as her band, opener “10.36” immediately getting
pretty much the whole floor jumping. An early “Care”, my favourite from her
debut, ticked in like Ben Kweller’s splendid “Wasted And Ready” then excelled
with some grunge-tastic riffery overlaying a dismissive vocal, a circle pit
(not the last of the evening…) forming for the final instrumental break. “Worth
It”, next up, was a very Blake Babies-esque number with some fine off-kilter
riffs, and Jami loved the hooky “Charlie Brown”, which apparently featured on
the soundtrack to her favourite recent TV programme “Heartstopper”!
A
couple of fluffy raccoons were thrown onstage for Bea (this is apparently a
thing, a big toy raccoon being sat atop the bass drum) before the pure college
pop of “She Gets Me So High”, which was delivered with Bea’s very Juliana/ Tanya-esque
clear choirgirl vocals; then the more introspective “Sorry” needed a restart,
as someone was dragged out of the pit (again, not the last of the evening…), an
otherwise taciturn Bea urging her young fans to be kind to each other. Whilst
the final third of the set, taken primarily from “Beatopia”, drifted a little
for me, a later and rockier “Back To Mars” lifted things back up, and set
closer “Talk” was for me the set highlight, bright and poppy, short and snappy,
to round off an equally short and snappy 18-song set which ultimately barely
cleared 1 hour! However, by this time Jami was flagging, so we chose to miss
the planned 3 song encore in favour of a quick departure, grabbing a beanie for
J then a quick snack before racing home, back at 11! A fun “daddy/ daughter” evening
out nonetheless, in the company of a talented young performer clearly destined
for much bigger venues. And Jami loved it too, so all good!
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