The Louisiana, Sunday 14th November 2021
LIFE IN MONO
We’d been wanting to catch Life in Mono for a while now, finally on Sunday evening the stars aligned and enabled us to see Sarah Clayton (lead vocals, guitar, keyboard) James Davis (guitar), Adam DT (bass) and Thomas Crabb (drums) do their thing.
We were expecting some haunting vocals from the clips we’d seen online of Sarah performing. What we were not expecting is how heavy Life in Mono get when they kick it up a gear.
They describe themselves as thrashy guitars, reminiscent of Placebo’s early days. Combined with the darkness of Mazzy Star & the lyrical sophistication of PJ Harvey. And who are we too disagree, that sums up the sound pretty perfectly.
A packed crowd for the opener were treated to a five song set including the likes of “when you play with fire”, “part time model” & our particular favourite “sex to white noise”
Sarah has a natural charming demeanour that endears her to the crowd. And constantly engages between eruptions of vocal excellence. You get some band that are a little over confident in their abilities, others that don’t seem to realise how good they are. Life in Mono definitely fall into the latter.
We look forward to catching these guys again.
IOTA
Ok so we’ll be watching Iota again and again..
What a blistering set from the home town 5 piece. We are still catching our breath.
Very apt that the opener of the seven song set was called “Demons” as this band perform like they are possessed.
The rest of the band (Josef-guitar left, Joe- guitar right, Mule- bass, Tom – drums) play their role perfectly. And that is to be the musical vehicle to unleash vocalist Jodie to do what she does best, raise a little hell. As stage presence goes it’s hard to gauge as Jodie spends as much time off of it as on, running into the crowd to start them moshing, dancing and ensuring they are having the best time they can. At one stage we were convinced she might run out the door, down the stairs and start performing in the street. And the crowd LOVED it. A firecracker of a performance from a firecracker band.
History shows us the most successful bands are not the ones that hit 9/10 in one or two areas, then 6/10 in the rest, but the ones that can deliver solid 8’s across the board of vocals, musicianship, tracks, stage performance etc.
Iota tick all the required boxes to reach whatever heights they can set their minds too.
Finishing up the set with “take it” and crowd favourite “my enemy” Iota are set for a big 2022 if they continue to play with this momentum. They certainly need bigger venues to contain them.
Enter Red
The best bands don’t have songs, they have anthems.
Enter Red are an anthem writing band.
The sort of band where the crowd sing the lyrics at the band rather than the other way around.
They might be a local band now, but just as we did with Idles we need to enjoy them as much as we can now, because I have a feeling we are about to lose them to the rest of the UK & beyond.
The unassuming four piece transform on stage into an alt rock giant that The Louisiana’s limited capacity struggled to contain. The packed crowd eating it up from first note to last.
It’s a review staple to say “the floor was jumping”, but trust me when I say the floor was literally jumping. I’m pretty sure anyone sat downstairs would have looked up to see the ceiling flex and bulge.
Led by the stage swagger of Kyle Ashwood – Vocals and Rhythm guitar, Liam Sailes – Lead guitar and BVs, Tom Smith – Bass and BVs & Ben Laver – Drums delivered a power bomb eight song set to the baying mob that squeezed themselves into every latch inch of floor space. Hearing brand new single “De Novo” live was a real highlight. A song that with the right air play has anthem status stamped all over it. Finishing up with Blossom Trees, which the crowd had been calling for with vigour all night, the four piece may have cemented themselves a place on the Louisiana’s equivalent to the Hollywood walk of fame.
I have a feeling Enter Reds picture will be adorning the walls of the iconic venue, alongside Amy Winehouse, Coldplay, Oasis, very soon.
Big things to come from this band.
The Bristol Nomad
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