1,367 DU BLONDE, BIGFATBIG, Bristol Thekla, Sunday 2nd February 2025

I’ve been waiting awhile for this one… Sunderland indie powerpop duo Bigfatbig announced themselves in a huge way onto my Gig Radar back in November 2022, an utterly stellar and ebullient set on the undercard of fellow North-Easterners Martha signalling their arrival. Since then, I’d been scouring the gig guides (metaphorically speaking these days, of course) for more BFB shows “down South”, but, aside from a brief tour calling in Oxford last Autumn, on a night where I already had a double-gig clash (!), opportunities were scarce, until their announcement as tour support of Du Blonde, the current musical incarnation of multimedia artist Beth Jeans Houghton. I know very little of Mx. Houghton, so this was a case of Du Who? for me… I’m there to support the support, and if the headliner is any good as well, then that’s a bonus!

A swift and easy drive down got me parked and queued up just before 7, in time to ask a passing Robyn, BFB’s charming vocalist, what their stage time was. The reply confused me a little; “about 10 past 8, and then 9!” but all would be revealed… grabbed a spot down the front, house left, and chatted to fellow punters Ian and Hilly, who were as up for the headliners as I was for the support! Recent gig friend Jeremy arrived and joined in the chat, before Robyn, guitarist oppo Katie, and their touring rhythm section hit the stage. And hit it hard! Opener, “ Reason Season Lifetime” from their excellent 2024 “Rippin’ It” EP, set the tone for the set, a soaring and upbeat indie banger with a choral hook big enough to land a whale with, and a mid-song acceleration over a secondary hook, delivered with effervescence, ebullience and charisma to throw away by Robyn, already high kicking and stomping away for all she was worth. The in-your-face punky snark of “Shut Up” followed the gregarious Robyn announcing, “this is the show we were most looking forward to!” also informing us that The Thekla itself was once moored in Sunderland, “so we’ve got a connection!”

Bigfatbig aren’t about reinventing the wheel or pushing the boundaries of rock; it’s standard upbeat buoyant indie-pop fayre with a powerpoppy rush overlaid for good measure, but their 2 key strong differentiating factors are the ridiculously infectious earworm nature of their often huge, repetitive choruses, and without doubt, the sheer gleeful enthusiasm with which they approach their task. Simply put, they’re having an absolute ball onstage, compelling you to do the same thing! “Fine”, my favourite off that “Rippin It” EP, was just brilliant, the slight melancholy air of the verse blown away by the huge dynamism of the choral hook, and “Nothing” (“about not going to work, as it’s just fucking boring!”) preceded Robyn also introducing their touring bassist as a last-minute replacement, the usual twanger not being able to get time off work (“that’s the least punk rock thing ever!” according to Robyn). The dark, frantic, almost emo choral hook of “Inbetween” preceded the band promising to be back very soon, before the huge beetle-crushing grungy stomper of “Don’t Wanna Be Sad” rounded off a breathless and rather superb set. If they’re back soon, then so am I! 

It became a little more crowded down the front, but I held my spot, as the reason for Robyn giving their stage times as “8… and 9!” (and promising to hang out at the merch after Du Blonde’s set) became clear… The Du Blonde “live” line-up were Bigfatbig, plus an additional curly, shock-haired red leathered guitarist who immediately gave me serious Poison Ivy Rorschach (Cramps) vibes, plus of course Du Blonde themselves, who was a pony-tailed, weirdly made-up and strutting figure with a husky, low register vocal and, despite not possessing the sheer unadulterated chutzpah of their support act, still an engaging performer. Opener “Perfect” was a moody, mid-paced Weezeresque emo number, with an early “Dollar Coffee” a more upbeat slab of chunky powerpop and “Solitary Individual” a rather fine and flippant Blondie/ Kim Wilde new wave track. A mid-set acoustic break then featured a rather lovely actually slow-burn break-up song, and a Torres-like parched Americana number with a mid-song hiccup which nonetheless didn’t faze the confident singer. 

The descending guitar line of the punkish “Blame” saw the band return, then “Ducky Daffy” was a snappy “Buddy Holly”-alike, again mining that Weezer seam, before some slower burn numbers to round things off, the plaintive and insular yet anthemic “Metal Detector” a lighters-aloft best-of-set for me. Beth left us with an odd analogy (“this boat is like the Guardians Of The Galaxy; we’re all in it together!”) and a stompy powerpop closer “TV Star”, to end a better-than-expected set from an odd yet intriguing talent. I then grabbed a chat and pic with Robyn and Katie at the merch stand afterwards, before bidding farewell to Jeremy and heading back to the ‘don for 11. Overall, a splendidly fun night from a couple of fine acts, but Bigfatbig won the day for me by some distance. Well worth the wait, and hopefully the first of many!

1,254 MARTHA, Bigfatbig, Cosmit, Bristol The Exchange (Evening!), Saturday 26th November 2022

 

After a brief pause following “Shiiine On”, it’s back on the gigging trail with a vengeance, with 4 gigs in the next 8 days! For starters, tonight sees a welcome return to my Dance Card for spritely helium-voiced indiepop/punk gender warriors Martha, Durham’s finest having released their 4^th album “Please Don’t Take Me Back” earlier this Autumn. Prima facie another jet-propelled collection of their infectiously catchy guitar-driven poppy punk, but scratch the surface and there’s more depth to this one; the usual musings on interpersonal relationship issues and identity in the 21^st century are joined by some pointed and occasionally necessarily savage political commentary about the utter clusterfuck we’re living in under the tyranny of Tory rule, giving an extra dimension to the band and perhaps proving to be their best album yet… Most popular too, as The Exchange gig sold out so quickly that a Matinee performance was also scheduled!

 Stuart and I however scored tix for the evening, so, in need of some good company and good rock after a turbulent week, I picked the man up and we chatted our way down a drizzly M4, slotting into a free street parking space after a van pulled out – timing! – and hitting a quiet venue just after opening. No time to do anything other than grab a drink and a side-venue pew before openers Cosmit took the stage at 7.15. Clearly taking their cue from tonight’s headliners, they ripped through a set of breakneck-speed, urgent and yearning Buzzcocks/ early Soup Dragons-like melodic punk, with some impressive male/female/other (who knows these days?) overlapping harmonies, and call and response choral hooks. I enjoyed the impressive “whoa-oh-oh” harmonies on the agenda-setting opener, the hurtling “36 Degrees”-esque 4^th number, and the vocalist’s imaginative use of the floor as a percussive instrument in the ramshackle, C86 Subway Records-esque “Caught Up In The Go Go Go”. Plenty to like in this set, then, and if you didn’t latch on to a particular number, no worries, as most tracks barely scraped 2 minutes! A short and snappy, if slightly ragged and unrehearsed, set ended with a Menzingers-like “Rest Your Head On Me”. Damn fine start!

Even better was to come, though, with tour support, Sunderland’s Bigfatbig. who bounded onstage in short order and opened with “Brink Of My Sanity”, a huge rollercoaster change-of-pace number with a Pixies-ish swagger and a deliciously descending bass riff. “Let’s Get Married” followed, a flippant Peaness-like indiepop choon with a naggingly hooky chorus and undulating “Basketcase”-like riff, belted out by the impressively tonsilled (is that even a word? Don’t care!) vocalist Robyn, an irrepressible plus-sized bundle of energy, enthusiasm, and effervescence, waving her tousled pink hair around in a marshmallow blur and ferociously stomping on the stage in huge hobnail boots. “Blame Me” was a 90’s slow-fast-slow hurtle with an almost ska beat and a late pregnant pause, catching us all out, before the ebullient Robyn remarked, “we played a show earlier [today] so if we look physically fucked, [it’s because] we are! [But] we’re having the best time of our lives!”, thereafter leading the band through an apt and impassioned reading of Alanis Morissette’s slacker grunge anthem “You Oughtta Know”. The urgent snarky rocker “Shut Up” followed, Robyn then gushing, “we love Bristol! How big is that Santa in the shopping centre??!!” This marvellous set, delivered with melody, cohesion, purpose and charisma to burn, concluded with the herky-jerky New Wave-isms and thumpingly big repetitive choral chant of “Don’t Wanna Be Sad”. Quite, quite superb!

Follow that, Martha! I grabbed a list and compared notes with Stuart, nearly being caught out as Martha themselves took the stage in equally short order, and in front of a now-packed house, at 8.45. Decided at that point against abandoning my house left front row spot (with guitarist Daniel’s setlist invitingly right in front of me!) for a loo trip, as Martha launched into “Beat Perpetual”, the joyous, rollicking opener to the new album, followed by the brilliantly prescient and pointed “Every Day The Hope Gets Harder” (a title I’m nicking for my End Of Year compo CD, BTW), a punkish blast with a Clash “Tommy Gun” drumbeat finish. “Somebody made choices and led us here to these darkest of times,” the now long-haired main vocalist JC lamented by way of exposition, “But we’ve still got pro Wrestling!”, guitarist Daniel launching into a rampant, rambunctious “Wrestlemania VIII”.

 

A cracking start, but could they keep this up? Happily, the answer was yes, as Martha were rather excellent tonight; tight as the preverbal gnats’ chuff, they sounded tough, road-tested and fluidly coherent, firing their passionate, effervescent amphetamine millennial punk rock bullets with unerring accuracy, interspersing them with pointed self-empowering diatribes, usually delivered by JC. “Bubble In My Bloodstream” was an angry, growling ascending Pixies death-march, launching into a gabbling, change-of-pace ending; “Love Keeps Kicking” (preceded by JC announcing, “ strap yourselves in, we’re about to crank the thermostat!”) a snaking sinuous rocker with a Thin Lizzy dual guitar line and empowering middle 8 speech; and the breathless “Legless In Brandon” was “a love song for all the queers in the room!” A speedily harmonic “Heart Sink” and set-closing “Void” were bookended with an acapella reprise of the earlier new album title track “Please Don’t Take Me Back”, then an irresistible, incandescent “Goldman’s Detective Agency” was the highlight of a 3 song encore capping a quite marvellous set, easily the best I’ve seen this confident and rapidly maturing band.

 Grabbed Daniel’s list as well at the end, then felt guilty about swiping it in front of a stick-using girl who was sat to my right, so I grabbed JC’s for her! Good deed done, I scooped up some Bigfatbig merch from, and a brief chat with, the besieged Robyn and her partner-in-crime Katie (it’s their first UK tour! Wow, they’re that good, that soon? Yikes!), before we braved the now harder rain for a sodden drive back to the ‘don, still home relatively early at 11. Just what I needed, this; great company with Stu, 3 fine bands, a real diamond of a new find in the buoyant Bigfatbig, and the excellent Martha on absolute top form. Bloody brilliant night out!