Review: Fuzzy Sun @ The Louisiana

By Mia Smith, Co-Deputy Music Editor

The Louisiana is a magical place. With its disgustingly-70s carpeted floors and the kind of intimacy where you can feel the music in your chest, it proved the perfect backdrop for Fuzzy Sun’s Northern charm.

Support act Concord Drive are the best kind of band – just some mates having a good time. Lead Jacob Vincent is a real gentleman – he takes a bow after each song and politely asks ‘we’ve got two songs left, is that alright?’. And it is alright – the band are fun, and their music is good. Vincent has hair made for rock n roll, ruffling it with all the cheeky charm of an indie frontman. He tells me after the show that it used to be longer, but he had to cut it because it kept getting in his soup. This is a band with their priorities in order: soup first, music second.

The show turned out to be one of impressive hairdos – Fuzzy Sun lead Kyle Ross fit with a head-banging mop to rival Vincent’s. He brims with Northern charm, which escapes as soon as he yells ‘Ay up Bristol!’. The band start with ‘Heavy’, an old dreamy indie pop number from 2018 that still sounds fresh. They pull us into the present with ‘Morning light’ from their debut album released last month; a song that leans into the heavier side of their oeuvre, loud and punchy at just the right moments.

Ross’ quick-witted ad libbing is flawless between songs: he tells us that a few require some ‘booty shaking’, and then accidentally says he’s going to ‘do’ a song to us. The crowd laughs as he retraces: ‘consensually of course’. He sweetly takes time to introduce the other members of the band too: Raffi Pani and George Fitzgibbon on guitar, Lewis Jobson on bass, Olly Tandon on drums.

Debut album ‘Since the Dog Died’ sounds perfect live – heady guitar riffs clash with Ross’ soft voice in the best way. It’s classic indie-rock but still refreshing, learning from the likes of Blossoms. Ross and Pani are a wholesome picture as they bound round the tiny stage of The Louisiana, meeting in the middle to do that incredible thing where guitarists play to each other. They eventually need a breather, and Ross invites us to slow dance with a stranger for ‘Gentleman’s Touch’.

But the lull is brief – next track ‘China Pearl’ sees the band at the top of their game: murky rock driven by an intense angst. It was made for moshing, but sadly the crowd was full of too many middle-aged folk who didn’t want to lose their pints. Ross puts his trust in us regardless, teaching us the chorus to ‘Come Take a Bite’ that's a ‘piece of piss’: ‘Keep me up all night/Come take a bite’. The crowd gladly sings along.

We’re treated to a huge cover of The Cure’s ‘Friday I’m in Love’, Ross so into it that he knocks the cymbal off the drum kit. The band send off the night with ‘Want Love’ – everyone’s favourite track. Ross is possessed by the syrupy synths and dramatically falls to the floor, caught lovingly by the carpeted floor of the Louisiana. Someone begs them to play a Christmas song, but the band are desperate for a pint.

I catch up with guitarist Raffi Pani in the bar, where he confesses that he doesn’t actually like indie music. He’s more of a jazz kind of guy, and humbly tells a story of leaving a family wedding early to go and perform on Jools Holland with Pip Millet’s band. He also feels very strongly about tambourines and cowbells, but that’s a story for another time.