1,467 FRANCIS OF DELIRIUM, May Payne, Bristol Exchange, Monday 28th September 2026

 

Well, my intended week of 4 gigs in 7 nights was reduced by one, as Sports Team fan Logan worked too late last Thursday to allow us to get down The Fleece in time to see them! No time to lick my financial wounds, though, as I was back on it tonight with this band of increasing faves. Luxembourg indie troupe Francis Of Delirium, ostensibly (and also increasingly) the singular vision of captivating talent Jana Bahrich, released their sophomore full-length effort earlier this year in “Run Run Pure Beauty”, and it’s an absolute corker. Once again taking it down a notch in comparison with both previous releases and their more overt shows, this properly showcases a batch of beautifully plangent melodic tuneage, switching from introverted melancholy to buoyant optimism with ease; no surprise it’s currently topping the list of my 2026 new releases. To cap things off, FoD’s touring iteration announced another UK tour, so I snapped up tix pronto. 

So, another sun-visor run down the M4 into the setting sun saw me parking up opposite the venue just after 7.15, running into Bristol gig friend Louise down the front, house left, for some fun gig chat before opener May Payne prompt at 8. A solo acoustic performer, occasionally utilising some eerie synth and effects pedal beats (though happily not too much of that old malarkey) but mainly a big old acoustic, her oeuvre majorly consisted of hushed and deeply personal introspective relationship breakup numbers, laced with extensive and rather entertaining between-song exposition. “I Was Born To Let You Down” (“the only happy song in the set!” according to May) and the more “evil” closing number (apparently written during her period!), which built to a crescendo, were my two highlights, but overall this was a listenable and endearing set from an engaging performer, who was surprised and buoyed by the quiet attentiveness of tonight’s audience!

We were then joined by Matt and his lovely daughter Alice, out on a first time daddy-daughter rock gig! So we chatted until the lights dimmed and Francis Of Delirium took the stage, quickly opening with the plaintive “Aliens”, building to a quiet/ loud undulating riff-fest, with Jana’s clear, high choirgirl voice already a feature, dancing across the surface. “Happy Monday you beautiful fuckers!” she exclaimed before the descending power riffery and almost operatic octave straddling choral vocal of an excellent “Out Tonight”, subsequently praising Bristol at its conclusion as “one of our favourite cities, [and the] best food!” 

That set the tone for tonight, with the “live” version of Francis Of Delirium again imbuing their material (particularly the new album numbers) with a potent, strident and vigorous dynamism, in contrast to the more layered and nuanced approach on the recorded versions, giving the songs an extra dimension in the process. And Jana herself seems to have really grown as a “live” performer, looking more relaxed and voluble, bantering jovially with her back-up boys and with the crowd, including myself on a couple of occasions, when their Briston Maroney support slot here in 2022 (gig 1,237) was mentioned! The stately oldie “Real Love” was a soaring early highlight, followed in short order by the groovy NYC new wave-isms of “Little Black Dress” and a more hushed, elegiac yet crescendo-building “Require For A Dying Day”, itself preceded by a stark vignette of Tears For Fears’ classic “Mad World”! We then got some rock theatrics as Jana and bassist Jeff divided the noisy and thoroughly engaged crowd down the middle, the halves competing for loudest reaction to the rabble-rousing punk hurtle of oldie “The Funhouse”; Jana properly energised our side with some expansive gestures of encouragement, but ultimately lost out to the chants of “Jeff Jeff Jeff”!

“We had Gigi’s pizza for tea… but now I think [its’] having me…” moaned Jana before the toughened up “Beautiful Life”, my favourite new one; “Something Changed” and “Higher” were a brilliant late hooky and widescreen double; then the brooding yet decadent dance of “Damned” rounded off the set… well, the planned one, at least… Jana then invited requests from the rowdy audience for an unplanned encore, ultimately settling on the quiet/ loud grungy riffery of “Ballet Dancers” and strident fist-pumping terrace chant of “Quit Fucking Around”, which ultimately closed out a rather excellent set. Drummer Denis (amazingly) heard my shout over the raucous cheers and handed me his list; we then joined quite the biggest merch queue I’ve seen at this venerated venue, Alice and I buying the same t-shirt (!) and myself grabbing list signatures and quick chats with both Jana and support May. Gathered my breath before a roadworks-diverted run home through inky country backroads, finally joining the M4 at J18 and hitting the ‘don at ¼ to midnight. Never mind, this was a fantastic show from a band really finding their feet “live”, energising and enthusing the Exchange crowd like few other  bands. Francis Of Delirium; direct, dynamic and delirious!

1,328 FRANCIS OF DELIRIUM, Eve Appleton Band, Bristol Louisiana, Wednesday 15th May 2024

 

My last time out for Francis of Delirium was a scorching Bristol Exchange gig on the hottest day of 2022 (gig 1,237); the mercury is slowly and finally rising, albeit to more comfortable levels than the 37 degrees on that day (!), but I was still expecting a hot one from this promising Luxembourg combo tonight. Hot on the heels of a string of jagged and ragged EPs channelling the likes of Pixies, Throwing Muses and even old school goth rockers Bauhaus, FoD finally released “Lighthouse”, their debut full-length, earlier this year. My first impression was of a mellower and more understated work than their previous releases, however repeated listens have brought to light a clutch of well-crafted, varied and introspective songs of hope and self-reflection from the pen of precociously talented FoD songwriter, singer and mainstay Jana Bahrich, with an almost effortless easy flow from track to track. A proper cohesive album, then, rather than a collection of songs haphazardly flung together, and likely one to remain a favourite of 2024.

Their subsequent tour passed through Brizzle so I of course booked early, and set off down a sunny M4 on an economy run – well, I’ve got 3 more Bristol gigs before the month’s out, got to make the petrol last! Parked in Wapping Wharf opposite the venue, happily figuring out the workings of this rather confusing car park (good thing too, as 2 more of the above 3 gigs are also here!) and sat outside with a Pepsi before Matt joined me. Had a nice catch up with my good friend before we hazarded a trip upstairs to see openers Eve Appleton Band, on at 8. Oh dear. It immediately felt as if we’d taken a wrong turn and emerged into 15^th century Sherwood Forest, with some very dated sounding baroque folk from this young sextet. All violins, painted faces, fairies in the garden and almost madrigal choral refrains. We gave it 3 numbers then repaired to our pavement-front outside bench for more rock and family chat instead!

Back up for about ¼ to 9, this tiny upstairs room already being full of the faithful and curious, so I made do with a spot a couple of rows back, house left by the door. Exactly at 9, Jana led the 3-piece touring iteration of Francis of Delirium onstage (the “studio” version being just her and non-touring producer/ cohort Chris Hewitt) and, after the delirious (!) build of opener “Alone Tonight”, gushed, “we’re Francis of Delirium from Luxembourg; and we unanimously agree Bristol is our favourite city in the UK! It's Wednesday, we’re going to have a good time…” The bouncy upbeat powerpop stomp of “Blue Tuesday”, the best song The Beths never wrote, was up next, in one fell swoop pretty much fulfilling that promise. Great start!

 

Jana herself purports to be quite the grunge fan, evident in her baggy and utilitarian dress sense, but also citing the likes of Pearl Jam and Smashing Pumpkins as FoD influences. Whilst I concede that their sound is very much rooted in that alt-80s/ 90’s sound, I hear the melancholy alt-country of Madder Rose, the off-kilter menace of Throwing Muses and the smoother and more ephemeral college pop of Tanya Muse’s subsequent charges Belly instead, rather than the grunge. “Live”, however, Francis of Delirium do crank it up with big riffs and earth-shaking power chords aplenty, giving extra gravitas and dramatic robustness to even their lighter material, such as the stately power ballad of “Real Love”, rendered beautifully tonight, whilst oldie “Funhouse” took on a seething menace throughout its’ clattering hurtle, powered by that Bauhaus-esque drum roll. Jana herself was in upbeat form too, fangirling about an encounter with actor Emma Watson earlier that day (“my voice is shaking even talking about it!”), introducing her “live” band by discussing their pet peeves, then before set closer “Give It Back To Me”, detailing the required audience participation in the hook outro then rating our performance as, “solid for a children’s choir!”

Before that, however, an earlier “Circles” was a dreamy lilt into a big riff chorus; the chilled and urbane “Who You Are” featured some lovely choral harmonies; then penultimate number “Something Changed” was my set highlight, a plaintive heartbreak build to a huge widescreen choral hook, Jana holding the strident note perfectly before an almost angelic dual harmony outro. The aforementioned, elegiac “GIBTM” was an apposite way to end a melancholy yet powerful set, Francis of Delirium being quite adept “live” in adding the crunchy guitar noise without overpowering the feeling and mood of the music. Grabbed a list and got the band (including a predictably besieged Jana at the merch stand) to sign it, then bade farewell to Matt and headed off home. So, not quite the utter scorcher as last time, but nonetheless a band coming to the boil nicely; Francis of Delirium are hot stuff!

1,237 FRANCIS OF DELIRIUM, Supp. Briston Maroney, Bristol Exchange, Monday 18th July 2022

 

The hottest day in the UK in my lifetime, and I’m spending the evening in a tiny and sweaty venue supporting the support… it’s either dedication to the rock’n’roll cause, or total insanity; you decide!

 Either way, this one was an eagerly anticipated one from Luxembourg (!) newcomers Francis Of Delirium, whom I’d discovered on that old reliable “New Music For Old Punks” facebook page last year, finding them a heady mixture of smooth, swirling dreampop, widescreen epic indie and down and dirty grungy riffery, with “Lakes”, their finest number, strongly recalling the excellent Madder Rose’s classic “Car Song” and comfortably making it onto my “Best of 2021” CD compo. An odd combination too, with the core duo consisting of Jana, a young female vocalist/ guitarist and her partner-in-crime Chris, a veteran player much (much!) closer to my age! I’d just missed their tour support with Coach Party last year (now, that’d be a great combination) plus a June support tour taking in Bristol, but was happy to snap up tix for this one, in support of Briston Maroney, a name fairly unfamiliar to me. There for the support, then!

 Fully hydrated, I set off down a baking M4 with the aircon on full, stopping at the services to cool the car down and only putting my own tshirt on when I parked opposite the venue! Grabbed a well-needed drink and chilled (in this heat? Ha!) outside while the Briston Maroney massive, mainly consisting of young student girls, filed in. So I followed suit and grabbed a front row spot, house left, promising my front row companions I would relinquish it after FoD were done. A baggy black-clad Jana led the 3-piece band on promptly at 8 (no Chris – I discovered later he doesn’t tour due to family reasons; fair enough!) and straight into the hushed intro to “Lakes”, then hitting the off-kilter, angular rhythm riff… and hitting it hard! It was obvious therefore from the outset that this “live” Francis Of Delirium iteration were here to rock, and they proceeded to tear the Exchange a new one with a potent, powerful and fiercely determined display, taking their cue from Jana herself. “Red”, next up, featured some fierce riffery from Jana, underpinning the looped “all makes sense” hook, and the excellent “Funhouse” clattered along propelled by an almost Bauhaus “Dark Entries” drumbeat. “Are you all excited to see Briston?” asked Jana – nope, I’m here for you guys!

 

A droney, stream-of-consciousness “Let It All Go” ceded into the stately, slow-burn dark and dirty dirge of “Losing”, which recalled Manchester Orchestra (!), before my set highlight, the stark, confessional lyricism and jagged Seafood-esque quiet-loud dynamics of “Ashamed”, which was quite brilliant, a quantum leap ahead of the considerably more muted recorded version. The Pixies-ish build to the terrace chant hook of set closer “Quit Fucking Around” was preceded by Jana asking for some audience participation for said hook; I think we got 6 out of 10 for enthusiasm but only 4 “because they can’t sing”! Whatever, Francis Of Delirium scored a perfect 10 for me for fierce, clear-eyed conviction, and delivery of a quite stunning set.

 

Grabbed my breath and left the front rows to the Briston massive after Jana had kindly handed me the sole list, then I grabbed signatures from the affable Luxembourgish rhythm section, unloading afterwards, plus a longer chat with the merch stand-bound Vancouver expat Jana. Zac, a blond chap who took our pic, complimented my rocking out down the front; I replied, “I’m only here for them – I’ve not even heard of Briston Maroney”, to which he retorted, “me neither, but I am in his band…!” Oops!

 Egged on by Zac and Jana, I took a watching brief at the back for Briston. I had actually checked out brief bits on YouTube, and as expected he initially dove in with a Pixies-ish “Wave Of Mutilation”-like chunky rocker “Bottle Rocket”, to a barrage of screams from his young female massive – no surprise really, he’s quite a handsome chap in a young psych-slacker Evan Dando way, I guess… Subsequent numbers variously recalled the chunky powerpop of early Ben Kweller/ Ben Lee, or blander 70’s druggy late night Venice Beach campfire swayalong balladry, but either way I wasn’t feeling the vibe overall, so after ½ hour I said my farewells to the FoD folks and left for a more comfortable drive home, back by 10.30. On another night I’d probably have enjoyed him more, but, similarly to The Slow Readers Club following Desperate Journalist at the Thekla in 2017 (gig 1,063), tonight wasn’t his night. Like them, he’d already been blown off stage for me by his support before even taking to it…! Nope, tonight was Francis Of Delirium’s night, a searingly hot set on a searingly hot night!