Review: Gig Soc @ The Louisiana

By Anastasia Baker, Music Subeditor

The Louisiana: a relatively unassuming pub-cum-venue in Bristol, perched on a corner beside the river and facing a wall, on the dwindling reaches of what you might still consider the ‘centre’.

The place is rarely on my lips as a target for a night out or even a single pint on the way home, and perhaps it just isn’t a ‘studenty’ pub: but tonight it’s comfortably full with roaming Gig Soc enthusiasts for this sold-out event.

In the moments before the first act, I catch a glimpse of a poster on the wall. It’s a blink-and-you-miss-it, humble kind of poster, full of names that require tiptoes and a squint to make out: but it seems The Louisiana is not unassuming in any way imaginable. The list of past acts is absolutely star-studded: as I scan, it just gets more unbelievable - Interpol, Wolf Alice, Dua Lipa, Coldplay, Florence and the Machine, The Strokes! Perhaps it has dwindled into modesty in recent years, but in 2016, clearly, it was at the height of its powers. 

The gig room is upstairs, past a professional-looking entry room in which the new Gig Soc committee greet us emphatically. The stage is pretty small - hard to imagine Dua Lipa was ever up there - but it’s just the right size for the first act, an intimate guy-and-his-guitar outfit, Acres n Acres.

The music is off-kilter and the lyrics slam-poetry-esque; between casual interactions with a lively crowd he plunges into these songs that seem to expand and ascend, working themselves up to great hysterical heights. The final song is almost lullaby-like, attended by a rainforest backing of twittering birds and dripping leaves. The set has a sense of gritting teeth and bracing yourself; being on the verge of something. 

Babe (great name) hail from London, and their vibe is comparatively chill. It’s bluesy, stop-start guitar sleaze that puts me in mind of traipsing through Southern America with a mirage on the horizon and a cigarette in your pocket. Everything is held together by the grooviest bass lines and the kind of call-to-action shout vocal reminiscent of old, raw, loud rock. 

The second track is my favourite; the groove, grounded and earthy, is met by swooning guitars. Elsewhere in the set these pondering, wandering bass lines deviate off into controlled explosion choruses, quirky lyrics delivered with cool conviction: “I thought I saw a priest/It was just a naked lady”.

Their set is met very positively by a clamorous crowd. Thanking us, they leave, promising greatness from Form Affinity. 

The headliners are a post-hardcore four-piece from London, fresh off the release of their debut LP Needling in June. They launch straight into their first track and, almost immediately, the phrase Deftones meets Slowdive comes to me. There is this kind of wistful, nostalgic, sweeping tremor to their sound which is angstily, emotionally charged like a 2000’s coming of age film. I think of powerlines over washed-out September skies when they play Goodbye, Columbus: this song is what it may feel like to be an American teenager, trapped on a blocky estate and high-school everyday.

A melodic and often tentative female vocal is undercut by throat-shredding screams: the effect is that of a cathartic release, an internal loudness that will express itself despite you. Thick and gritty bass underlies it all, and at the drop of each song the audience fling themselves into each other, and the mosh pit churns to a retrospect-tainted cry: “Don’t feel bad about it”. 

This dynamic and unpredictable blend of artists is exactly what a Gig Soc gig needs. It is equally niche and expansive, and hits all the right notes for me.

Were you there for the first Gig Soc gig of the year?