DIM SWN | LIVE REVIEW
Various venues, Cardiff, Sat 11 Apr
“People discover you at festivals. They come to see Coldplay or whoever, and then wander over and catch your act. Festivals make a lot of sense to me.” Some words of wisdom from one of the nation’s favourite wordsmiths, Tinie Tempah, but the man makes a good point. Dim Swn 2015 followed a very successful one-dayer late last year and was definitely a day of discovery. Many of the acts on show across the six venues were just starting out or playing for the first time in the Welsh capital. Armed with a timetable and a small selection of chocolate bars for energy, this reviewer managed to catch around a quarter of the artists and stumbled across some credible (and a couple of incredible) performances.
First up, kicking off the festivities downstairs at Clwb Ifor Bach, was a young whippersnapper by the name of Alex Stacey. This 17-year-old from Caerphilly has been getting a fair bit of national airplay over the past year or so and despite being visibly nervous, he gained confidence when the room filled up a bit and warmed up the crowd with a bit of ‘audience participation’. The songs themselves were standard acoustic pop a la Ed Sheeran but there was a bit of skill in the songwriting and some good loop pedal skills.
The first artist to be circled on seeing the schedule was Laura Doggett: a fast-rising singer-songwriter with a
couple of singles under her belt and a powerful set of lungs. The time slot was a strange one because Doggett’s music is definitely night-time music. Her deep, rich voice was backed up by an excellent band which sometimes managed to drown her out in the mix – that’s no mean feat. Next stop was The Moon Club to see Brawlers and the atmosphere, is understandably, completely different. The place is packed out and the band are already a couple of songs into a blistering set which sounds not unlike a clutch of bands from Dischord Records’ heyday. Frontman Harry bounds around the room offering people beer and wearing a hat that would make Devo proud whilst the band behind him belt out some high-energy punk. Alcopop Records have a very good thing on their hands.
I’m not sure if it was the comedown from the Brawlers set, but the following one from London’s Zola Blood didn’t quite live up to the hype. There’s not an awful lot known about the band but they’ve been building up a large following and there were plenty in the room to see them today. They’ve got a brand of melancholy similar to Interpol but didn’t seem overly comfortable with their surroundings and lacked a little stage presence – perhaps they were shy. A slight diversion from the schedule was made to try and catch a little of T I B E T, who many friends had been particularly vocal about during the day. The band formerly known as Brothers definitely know how to whip a crowd up into a frenzy and they act like a band that has been together for years. The music they play is tight, spiky indie-pop – there was a ton of it about in the mid-1990s but the band are rehashing it and cleaning it up to spring it on the next generation.
A highlight of last year’s one-dayer, Jane, Ruth and Cat make up Jagaara. This year, they’re upstairs at Clwb – a venue twice the size of the one they played in 2014 – and despite lead vocalist Jane’s best efforts, the words seemed to get lost in this bigger space. Despite there being a hundred-plus people in the room, the band suffered from the Cardiff gig tradition of the crowd not venturing closer than 10 feet away from the stage.
What Tinie Tempah said was right. I had no intention of seeing Novella but see them I did and it was one
of the best performances I’ve witnessed in years. A little late to the party, but still early enough to catch half an hour of some Stereolab/MBV-influenced joys. The only notes I managed to make were ‘amazing’, ‘wonderful’ and ‘outstanding’. Suki Sou’s bass playing in particular, was phenomenal. Come back soon! A cooling off period was provided with a short walk over to GwdiHw to catch Estrons. Fronted by Canadian-Swede Tali Kallstrom, they are a straight down the line alt-rock band with a penchant for writing some fine tunes; new single Aliens in particular, is a highlight of this punchy set in a venue that will soon be too small for their growing fanbase.
Final port of call before leaving (to let the kids get down to the serious partying) is Buffalo to witness Pretty Vicious, who people have quite rightly been getting all excited about in recent months. Only 4 months since playing their first show in their hometown of Merthyr Tydfil, they’re now (sort of) headlining a festival. Why? Because – although not to my personal taste – they are loud as is humanly possible, write some corking rock’n’roll songs and make you wish you were 17 again.
words BEN GALLIVAN photos JOE SINGH (www.snaprockandpop.co.uk)