In a city full of fabulous festivals of every hue, Bad Pond positions itself out on the edge, a champion of the alternative, the outsider and the up-and-coming. Local label Small Pond Records are the conceivers and curators and they have teamed up with the Brighton branch of BIMM and The Arts Council to make this one free entry. Yes that’s right, free entry. And If you know anything about Small Pond and their mission to support musicians and artists in these testing times, that rather surprising fact shouldn’t be that surprising. With live music seemingly under attack with multiple venue closures across the country, nurturing the source of musical creativity, the musicians themselves, is more vital than ever.
SOURCE has an admission to make before the review gets going. Someone at the office forgot to write “train strike” into the diary and here’s hoping the first two bands, Welly and Mindframe, are supporters of our national rail brothers, sisters and others whose worthy actions are squarely to blame for our lateness (alongside a badly planned calendar). Please accept, with our apologies, a complementary gig preview voucher for your next Brighton shows.
The blaze of very late summer sunshine is eschewed for the dark depths of Chalk and things are well underway with Honeybadger, a feisty three-piece in the traditional heavy grunge style. Cobain is an obvious reference point and not for the last time today the sound of 90s Seattle is in the air. Frontman Eddy has a certain presence and with Radio 1 peering over the fence, these guys are ones to watch.
Waco are a weirdly wonderful and very positive experience. Lead singer Jak Hutchcraft is an endearing, energetic performer and the band are tooled to perform very much in the mould of Blink-182 punk-pop. It gets a little ragged at the edges but when things are this much fun, it doesn’t really matter.
Brighton band InTechnicolour are sporting some fine sports attire as they grind and chug through a set of stoner rock and we’re back in 90s Seattle, but this time hanging out with Vedder and his boys. The sound morphs into something much heavier as the show progs on and the finisher ‘Troll’ is an absolute behemoth of a song.
It’s time for one of those transcendental festival moments. A band you’ve only vaguely heard of wanders onto the stage and within four bars of the first song have captured your heart and blown you away. ARXX are a class above. It’s pitch-perfect pop and singer Hanni Pidduck has a world-class voice. They’re also the politest band ever, apologising for being tired after riding a night ferry to get here. ‘God Knows’ is a festival highlight and their insertion of Cher’s ‘Believe’ replete with live auto-tuning was inspired. ARXX are turning heads wherever they go and deserve to be huger than huge.
Sick Joy are possessed of an intriguing vulnerability that is hard to pinpoint and we’d like to bet Brian Molko is a fan. Yet more echoes of 90s grunge are heard and singer/guitarist Mykl has an almost perfect voice that matches the often operatic orchestration. The only hesitation was the pre-recorded bass on a backing track that scuffed the corner of what was otherwise an emotionally genuine performance.
The Physics House Band are preprogrammed to confound and confuse and quite literally perform a freeform jazz experiment in front of a festival crowd. The hectic syncopation, riffing guitar, parping saxophone and the kind of drummer that would make Buddy Rich weep all combine to create something that is rambling and exhilarating at the same time. TPHB make music that is a cross between a Mercury prize winner (relevant), a gameshow theme and the soundtrack to the next Lethal Weapon film.
Witch Fever are bang in the middle of a UK tour and they sound like it. The band plays taught, tight and imperiously confident music with brutal basslines and a wall of guitars mightier than anything this side of Westeros. It’s all backed by a drummer who is so relentless it’s hard to keep up. Amy Walpole’s screeching vocal soars over the top and by the crashing denouement she’s into the pit, surrounded by an adoring crowd.
Next up is Whores and if the name is a little on the nose, then so is the music. On the nose, the face, the entire rest of the body and everyone else stood within 20 feet. Having travelled across a big pond, this Atlanta three-piece have hewn their sound out of monolithic slabs of living rock. It seems impossible that three blokes can make this much noise. The Melvins have to be mentioned as a touchstone, but Whores are ploughing their own no-nonsense furrow, on their knees and with their bare hands.
Obscure band reference time: the long since departed Animal House once crept the boards and were a supergroup of sorts. Jamie Lenman and his matching Saville Row inspired sartorialists sound just like them. This is almost certainly by accident because the aforementioned Animal House lasted about five seconds before imploding. Lenman clambered out of the hardcore scene a few years back but you wouldn’t have guessed it. The set bounces along and this gentle pop-rock is music for the good times.
Bad Pond have curated a very special showcase and Chalk was chock full of stars today. They have also laid a challenge before us. If we value our music scene surely we must value our musicians too. And we must pay them. Tour buses aren’t free. Rehearsal rooms aren’t free. Guitar strings aren’t free. Food isn’t free. Bad Pond gave us one on the house today thanks to some great planning and a couple of grants, but all of the performers should have been handsomely paid by the audience for the entertainment they gave and, ultimately, music like this shouldn’t be free. And as SOURCE forgetfully heads back to the very closed train station we are left wondering, if the rail workers have gone on strike because of pay and conditions, why not musicians too…?
Small Pond presents Bad Pond Festival
Chalk, Saturday 2nd September 2023
Words and photos by Jason Warner
