By Aditi Hrisheekesh, Co-Deputy Music Editor
A pressure cooker of anticipation: The Louisiana is packed to the rafters with indie enthusiasts and alt-rock aficionados, crammed like sardines inside the Harbourside venue. The ceiling is low, energies are high, the floor somewhat sticky – an apt breeding ground ready to cook up a spunky performance.
To start off, support act Lizzie Esau practically floats onto the stage, donned in iridescent wings – an iridescence that seeps into her sound and presence. The soundscape is reminiscent of Wolf Alice – that sort of mythical etherealness conflated with a compelling, powerhouse of sound. Their final song, ‘Bleak Sublime’, sums up this otherworldly yet intense feeling.
Then, The Pale White arrive. Newcastle’s finest purveyors of riff-driven anarchy saunter on, naming Bristol the ‘most underrated city’ (after Newcastle of course). They launch into ‘That Dress’, their most popular song – originally a scrappy demo back in 2016, reborn in a fleshed-out form on Infinite Pleasure released in 2021.
Songs like ‘Medicine’ hit like a gut-punch, flitting between sedation and despair: 'Or maybe it's a heavy dose of déjà vu / Maybe I've been here before without you, without you.’ The setlist ranges from nearly decade-old classics to newer songs like ‘Nostradamus’ that tease their upcoming album The Big Sad, coming out in April this year. The lyrics are raw and cutting, tearing through the raging bounds of sound.
Then, frontman Adam Hope pulls back with a tender, stripped-back song from Infinite Pleasure, ‘Anechoic Chamber Blues’ – the inverse of an echo chamber, where sound and feeling are swallowed whole.
Their soundscape rests somewhere between the anthemic puncture of Royal Blood and the gravel-covered tone that feels like a homage to Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age. Adam Hope addresses the crowd, ‘Are you buzzing? Because I’m buzzing.’ And indeed, his guitar tone is thick and serrated, chiselling out the confined space like a buzzsaw cracking concrete.
Jack Hope, the drummer, was phenomenal, as if he was on the brink of snapping his sticks and breaking the world in half. Meanwhile, Dave Barrow, the bassist (since 2023), pulls sound out in an almost carnal way. He and Adam create a feral energy as their pummelling rhythms lock in against each other. Having supported the famed Pixies in the past, the band successfully channels everything rock and roll.
It is Brit-rock sharpness hinging on a bluesy grit, really sending the set into the stratosphere. As if early 2000s grunge has been resurrected as Frankenstein’s monster, the pieces of the past are jolted into the present.
There is ultimately a sentimentality, a methodised chaos, nostalgia incarnate – even if you have never heard the songs before. It’s that sense of ‘déjà vu’ that does just feel all too real.
Featured Image: Aditi HrisheekeshDo you like nostalgic sets?
