It’s
been a tough couple of weeks since my last gig, due to my Dad passing away,
which itself was preceded by a period of hospitalisation and hospice care for him.
As he always used to say, though, you just have to get on with it, so I was
grateful for this pre-arranged gig to finally crop up in my schedule, so I
could get on with doing what I love; seeing bands! And in tonight’s hosts,
excellent post-punk/ shoegaze noiseniks October Drift, an increasingly special
band in my books… A family holiday in Crete had unfortunately clashed with
their October 2022 tour promoting their sophomore album “I Don’t Belong Here
Anymore”, although I had managed to see them do a “hipster bistro” acoustic
performance at Rough Trade Bristol before boarding the plane (gig 1,249). Said
album was comfortably in the upper echelons of my Top Ten of 2022, replete with
shimmering soundscapes, strident power-riffs and skyscraping choral hooks, so
tonight represented a great chance to hear that new material, hopefully with no
horses spared, as it were…
Bumped into October Drift’s wide-eyed, enthusiastic vocalist Kiran Roy by the merch stand for a between-set chat; the tour has been going really well to date, but they were anticipating tonight to be one of the quieter dates on the tour. Not wrong there, as there were probably about 30 or so hardy folks present as the band took the stage at 9… well, three-quarters of the band, anyway… I’d wondered why the OD roadie had set up the lead mic to the back of the dancefloor, but here was where Kiran delivered the opening number “Ever After”, solo at first before the band bled in with low-key embellishment. However, things blasted off good and proper when Kiran joined his compatriots onstage for an utterly incendiary version of “Lost Without You”, the guitar boys all kinetic power and movement, sawing away as if their lives depended on it, backed up more than ably by drummer Chris, wild-eyed and pounding away mercilessly. Woah, what a start!
Perhaps
taking their support’s advice to heart, October Drift were quite brilliant
tonight, affected by the disappointing attendance not a jot, instead setting to
their tasks with fearsome power, energy and clear-eyed conviction. By “Lost”’s
strident, dramatic middle 8, Kiran had already abandoned the stage for an
excursion into the crowd, the first of many tonight! Metronomic rocker “Webcam
Funerals” upped the pace further, “Don’t Give Me Hope” was a slower-burn
shimmer, highlighting their shoegaze side at least until the inevitable
cacophonous climax, and “Bleed” was a ticking countdown into a roaring stadium
rocker, all thunderous riffery and sky-scraping anthemic choral hook. The
swaggering, Pixies-ish “Insects” was another highlight, and the strident
“Forever Whatever” saw the front rows sway along to another brain-hugging hook.
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