Indie quartet Coach Party, take to their UK tour following their chart-topping new album “Killjoy”, accompanied by Swedish four-piece Girl Scout.
Sporting patchwork tattoos and striped tees reminiscent of Graham Coxon, Girl Scout took to Thekla’s stage, confident and assured with their recent success, praised to the heavens by the likes of Dork, NME and Clash. Perfect for any individual who loves a discreet cry in the shower to Phoebe Bridgers, new releases “Bruises” and “Millionaire” embrace the audience, enclosing them in a delicate film of cotton wool with Emma Jansson’s ethereal and delicate vocals.
Like all chart-topping Indie bands, Girl Scout effortlessly blend melancholia with subsequent, anguish-filled guitar riffs. Tracks “Boy in Blue” and “Do You Remember Sally Moore?” awaken the audience from their previous hypnotised state, igniting a sudden desire to move and raise limbs into the air as Spasov’s guitar catalyses an epidemic of headbanging within the front row.
As Girl Scout’s curtain-closing track is met with crescendos of cries and pleas for more, the crowd’s sights set to the next act and their ornamental decorations: a skeleton placed on the top right speaker, fitting both for the spooky season and emulating the cover of new release “Killjoy”.
Isle of Wight success stories are a common reoccurrence in today’s indie scene, need I mention Wet Leg? However, none do it quite so well as Coach Party, whose recent success has been recognised by music journalists across the country, as well as by rock legends Queens of the Stone Age, with which the band recently toured.
Vocalist Jess Eastwood emerged onto to the stage, bringing back the waistcoat and Mary Janes, with Drummer Guy Page fashioning a Sonic Youth t-shirt, exhibiting one of many influences the band incorporate into their music. Although met with immediate technical difficulties, the band expressed their witty humour with a brief interlude of dad jokes and animal sound effects supplied by the tour photographer.
New tracks “What’s the Point in Life” and “Micro Aggression” are up first on the extensive setlist, diving immediately into the band’s anger-filled sound, commenting on the macabre and infuriating elements of life. “Born Leader”, a personal favourite, sees Eastwood and Guitarist Steph Norris helplessly crooning into separate microphones, begging for requited love and a mere phone call from said romantic interest.
With many a pint-spilt and sweat starting to steam up the boat, the band take the audience on a trip down memory lane, playing early releases “I’m Sad” and “Everybody Hates Me” – singles perfectly combining despair with an upbeat sound; a subtle yet effective ode to The Smiths. There is a light that never goes out with Coach Party.
Eastwood looks to the audience and thanks them for attending the gig, claiming, as many a band often does, that Bristol “pops off” the most. With the old-school track “Shit TV”, Norris and Joe Perry (Lead Guitar) sway and move perfectly in rhythm, playing off one another in a perfect equilibrium. “FLAG (Feel Like A Girl)”, a track needed for your man-hating playlist, seamlessly combines Eastwood’s rage-filled vocals and a blatantly obvious feminist message. On this particular evening, the song was dedicated to PM Rishi Sunak, his policies seemingly heavily criticised by both band and crowd. A subtly placed Storm Trouper figurine pulsates with each of Joe Perry’s needling guitar riffs.
The quartet’s live performance ends with “Parasite”: 90 seconds of pure punk-rock that induces a cold-water-like awakening and is bound to raise all hair on your arms. Eastwood steps down from the role of bassist, seizing the microphone out of its stand and taking to her knees in submission to rock n’ roll, screaming ecstatically, free of all anger.
@nevedawsonphotos @_nevedawson
My current role for TBGG is as a Reviewer, Interviewer and Photographer, which I do in my spare time when I'm not studying English Literature and History at the University of Bristol.
I'm available for reviews, previews, interviews and shoots through the company. Alongside TBGG I also write for The So Young, Groupie and Rodeo Magazines, with an aspiration to enter magazine and newspaper journalism focusing on culture and the arts.
What was your first Gig?
The first gig I remember seeing (when I wasn’t dragged around by my metal-head father) was The Killers live in my hometown of Birmingham in 2016. Brandon Flowers’s iridescent cowboy suit still blinds me to this day and echoes glamorous indie rock n’ roll for years to come.
What's your dream Gig?
I would have to say my dream gig would be seeing Hendrix’s star-spangled banner live at Woodstock ’69. Call me cliché but I was born in the wrong generation.
