The Fleece, Bristol, May 10th 2022
While there’s something boyishly charming about Sea Girls, it’s clear when catching a live performance that this band are growing up, fast. The experience they’ve found on the road and with it, the stories of girls held at arm’s length and childhood friends on twisted paths – is all channelled into their new album, Homesick.
Even their old songs feel anthemic in Homesick’s wake: the crowd-pleasing classics of Sea Girls’ oeuvre like “All I Want To Hear You Say” and “Do You Really Wanna Know?” feel resurrected with second life.
Henry – the band’s front man – has an expression of pure spontaneity when he’s singing, as if each word is coming to him for the first time onstage.He’s a casual force of nature; a hurricane taking his time in deciding which path to annihilate. A thunderstorm with his hands in his pockets.
Shut your eyes, and the band sound just like their records. Open them again, though, and you’ll find the guitarist squaring off with the floor, riffing into the void. You’ll notice how the bass of songs like “DNA” or “Paracetamol Blues” thrums like electricity across an iron rod. You’ll spot the audience; a heady and unusual mix of bright pink hair and faded grey beards.
Anyone who listens to Sea Girls knows the mood they’re trying to stir; a teenage sensitivity through the eyes of adult experience. Their shows must be seen to be believed, then, whenthis emotion is worn on their sleeves, as integral to their style as double denim or silver chains.
Henry stands on the bar, he sings with the crowd. If live music is meant to create a sense of community, Sea Girls start a cult.
@katejeffrie 
Daisy Kent – Music Photographer
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