Sunday in Cardiff might not be an average week’s prime gig night, but that never stopped a Clwb Ifor Bach audience from turning up to close the weekend. Their choice of music this time – raise-the-roof indie mixed with a degree of postpunk’s undeniable drudge at the hands of up-and-coming band Feet.
Cardiff‘s Womanby Street makes up for the winding down of typical Sunday nights, bars dispensing sound from multiple directions. Joined by noisy punk support Bad Shout, the headlining Coventry quintet’s visit to the Welsh capital follows a 2019 Sŵn Festival appearance. Feet dispense wonky rhythms punctuated by guitar stabs, charismatic, tambourine-waving lead singer George ‘Jeep’ Haverson smashing the instrument’s frame against himself frantically before delivering school photo nostalgia by requesting the crowd to adjust themselves depending on size order.
Peace And Quiet, deployed early in the set, features staccato notes, driving bass and hard-hitting drums, while Petty Thieving’s light descending lead lines complement heavier moments. Chalet 47 encapsulates the mundane yet cinematic nature of British travel, guitarist Callum Parker’s falsetto vocals covering lyrical topics including traffic congestion, sticky seats and service station toilets.
With a knack for making the gritty, unpretty, everyday parts of life moments to speak about, Feet earn themselves a warm reception from discontent anthem English Weather. A controlled chaos of pogoing audience members thrash about in a small moshpit, wide-eyed and bushy-tailed. Before closing the night, Jeep dives into the belly of the crowd, hanging off the ceiling while his bandmates watch on. As a band, Feet’s world might be the lighthearted indie-rock kind, but it’s pleasingly disjointed too, and musically speaking the rhythm section and melody lines are solid within their own right, functioning as one entity. I just wish I could stay longer.
Feet, Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff, Sun 4 Sept
words and photos EMMA WAY
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