1,274 OCTOBER DRIFT, The Pleasure Dome, Newport Le Pub, Tuesday 18th April 2023

 

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…

 This tour took in the Thekla, albeit in an already busy gigging May, so I’d instead booked for an early-tour trip over the bridge to the little-visited Newport, to Le Pub, a new venue on my dance card. After a quick trundle down the M4 I found it quite easily, close to the railway station and directly opposite an NCP! The venue itself was a small Vic-sized room to the side of a bigger pub, and wasn’t open on my arrival, but I passed the time chatting with a local lad about a £20 note which he’d lost! Eventually wandered in for openers The Pleasure Dome, kicking off dead on 8 p.m. A trio of ginger mullets, rock tattoos, hair and shirtlessness, they looked like a poor man’s Biffy Clyro, which was quite an apposite comparison musically too, with plenty of changes of pace, strident screamy vocals and general grungy noise featuring in their set, albeit also with a bit of Kings Of Leon-esque Southern boogie thrown in. At best, their punked-up set recalled that “difficult” early Biff and Primus; at worst it veered uncomfortably towards incoherent and irritating Nu-metal. Still, seen worse, and I liked the vocalist’s logic; “this is [October Drift’s] first time in Newport; it’s up to you to make it a good one… or it’s up to them as well, maybe… joint responsibility!” 

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.

 “Thanks for coming out! This is our first time in Newport; the first time we come to a town or city there’s usually about 10 people there!” remarked drummer Chris before the penultimate “Oh The Silence”, to which I couldn’t resist firing back, “come to Swindon, there’ll be 11 of us!” “Silence” was another hard-riffing, fist-pumping anthem to finish the set proper, at which point Kiran and Chris took to the middle of the crowd to deliver a largely acapella and quite beautifully heart-rending version of “Like The Snow We Fall” in the round. A lovely way to end a stellar and dynamic 1 hour performance from a band rapidly becoming one of the best “live” prospects around. A quick chat with the boys, then a tired and slightly diverted (through Bristol) drive home saw me back in the ‘don just after midnight. So, as Dad said, get on with it, and I’m glad to get back on the gig trail, particularly with this marvellous October Drift performance!