By Anastasia Baker, First Year English.
Thekla’s heaving already at the early hour of 19:30; its characteristic low-ceilinged chaos is an ideal setting for Templeman’s cult following, who have already crammed themselves into every nook and cranny of the lower decks.
We’ve missed the first opening act, Ava Zarate (a pop-rock singer-songwriter from West London), but are just in time for SOFY, whose distinctive silky vocals I couldn’t attach to a face for the first few minutes due to the jostling crowd. There is something appealing about hearing but not ‘seeing’ the music initially, allowing the lo-fi-inspired beats and guitars dipped in chorus space and clarity.
SOFY, and her touring members, seem ecstatic to be here—they bounce through each song, the most prominent of which is ‘Big Talks’. Its lyrics express a longing to return to a time before phones and dating apps: ‘I just wanna do it like our parents used to do’. The nonchalance of SOFY’s soft Leicester accent is a satisfying contrast to the topical message.
Her freshest album, Another Day in Paradise, drops in March 2025. SOFY decides to shoo the rest of the band off stage and play an unreleased track. It’s impressive how, in the condensed space of a 30-minute set, she manages to orchestrate these moments of intimacy with the crowd without them feeling shoehorned in; the performance of the new song is remarkably genuine, and she thanks Thekla profusely as they round off to tumultuous applause.
In the short interval between the opener and the main event, we can admire the backdrop. It seems an amalgamation of all Templeman’s previous projects: the smiley face that fronted the cover for his EP Happiness in Liquid Form rides on a tidal wave of music notes, peace signs, miscellaneous eyes, a flailing arm, and a brown-haired man. This vibrant mayhem signposts the masterclass in stage presence that is to come.
Templeman careens onto the stage to the glittery opening of Tears for Fears' ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’, sporting a beanie hat red as a very sore thumb. His charisma is akin to that of The Killers’ frontman, Brandon Flowers: though his guitar mostly nails him to the spot, his vocal switch-ups—impossibly high notes, yelling out to the crowd—are reminiscent of this iconic figurehead of synth-pop rock, and almost feel larger than life in the nautical confines of a comparatively undersized Thekla.
His first song is ‘3D Feelings’, a track off his debut 2022 album Mellow Moon, and it’s a bouncy opener. Where SOFY’s guitars were only dipped in chorus, this earworm of a riff is delivered with guitars absolutely drenched in chorus and reverb. ‘Obvious Guy’ is next, and, to my surprise, isn’t even one of Templeman’s biggest hits, but it definitely should be—there’s an instant singalong accessibility to the chorus.
In terms of visuals, it’s a bit of a spectacle: the lights shift between cool, unconcerned blues and dusky reds, and strobes occasionally prism between audience heads. Templeman’s stage presence is made all the greater by his charismatic, and often pretty rogue, back-and-forth with the crowd. Before ‘Beckham’, he acknowledges its ‘weirdness’, and prior to ‘Circles’, gives a shout-out to actress Gillian Anderson.
Later on is ‘Dirty Laundry’, Templeman’s most recent single and one he introduces by swearing it’s 'not about pooing yourself': here, his ease on stage and closeness with fans is most evident. Anything else he says tends to be compliments of the people and the place: Bristol, and specifically Thekla, is his favourite place to play.
As we reach the tail-end of the setlist, things get sentimental with ‘Don’t Go Wasting Time’. The lyrics advise, ‘Don’t go wasting time on the past / Chasing things that weren’t meant to last’ and drift placidly over the nursery-rhyme simplicity of the soothing guitar backing.
When Templeman and his band now exit the stage with many thank-yous and goodbyes, we all know what’s next: the crowd starts the mandatory chant of ‘one more song’, and it takes almost no convincing at all for Alfie to burst back on stage to close the night with, naturally, ‘Happiness in Liquid Form’. Funk and dance collide in this one; the response is positively supercharged, and every word is bounced back at him with the voice of hundreds.
Even if Alfie Templeman’s music is more suited to open fields on balmy festival days in August, it still very much holds its own in this below-decks dance floor in November.
Featured Image: Anastasia BakerWhat is your favourite Alfie Templeman song?
