Darlia, Sundara Karma, Declan McKenna.
Lev 2 Esquires Monday 16th February 2015.
Tonight, on yet another Monday night gig at Esquires, the spotlight is firmly on DARLIA. They are a trio from Blackpool who are now based in Manchester and include Nathan Day (vocals, guitar), Dave Williams (drums) and Jack Bentham (bass). They originally met as cleaners at their local college and decided to give music a go after their work shifts. At the moment it seems like a good decision. Their current tour is starting and Bedford is the first night. For Darlia this gig tonight almost acts as a warm up for their sold out NME Awards show at The Garage in London. Nathan appears content with the way things are working out for the band. "I think it's going well" he says. Many support slots have come along for Darlia, including one with ex-MCR frontman Gerard Way last year.
Esquires is full and has been all night as most people arrived early doors. With the half term holidays this week there are many youngsters in attendance, more than a few with their parents in tow. An atmospheric intro grabs everyone's attention. The first song to truly generate a wild crowd reaction is "I've never been to Ohio". This one is reminiscent of The Dandy Warhols at their more raucous, aside from obvious "Minnesota" comparisons. The very obvious musical influences for Darlia are Nirvana and, vocally, Brit Pop. It's like grunge meets Oasis! With guitar music being edged out at present by the vogue for bland and boring solo artists, it is a real pleasure to witness some lads that just want to plug in and play - loudly. "Choke on bones" is excellent and seems to ignite the crowd. It is gloriously uplifting, even to the older folks that remember grunge the first time around.
Their stage presence is good and, although tonight is obviously not their highlight of the week, they make it a real thrill for all those people who purchased a tickets from The Pad Presents. A total contrast is "Say your prayers". This is a newer and slower song and didn't really build up to much. While absorbing the song, I think back to the recent NME review of current EP "Petals". It was given a paltry 5/10 by the esteemed paper, the first noticeable set back to a band that have been championed extensively by the publication.
I deferred from buying the available EP though as I feel that Darlia are an out an out exciting live band. Tonight Esquires sweats, both band and crowd. The set is awash with angst and anger, but is not at all political. "Queen of Hearts" is blistering and it tells of how love can be bad as well as good. As the set draws to a close Darlia admit that they don't want to play their last song. Nathan explains that it is "cause we want to stay". He adds "We're going to hang around later and sign some T-shirts. They're not Darlia T-shirts, just Primark"! To the assembled hordes it would have been a huge disappointment if the band had not played an encore. The older folks in attendance could, I suppose, criticize Darlia for lacking a certain sleaze element, but this is the rather sanitized 21st century and they are still a band to keep an eye on.
Supporting Darlia on this tour are SUNDARA KARMA. This quartet emanate quiet loud in a flavour of Swim Deep. These fellas exude reflective indie pop perfection and purvey an eighties moistened maturity and restraint. They have undoubted quality and potential and bring their own sound engineer to fully unlock their sounds. The electronic backdrop to their guitar work gently blows kisses into the crowd's ears. Their burgeoning reputation is further enhanced by the fact that they are not yet out of their teens. Hailing from Reading, they have already played the town's annual music festival. Future possible stardom has already been cultivated by the influential pages of NME. At present they have a new recording to publicize, appropriately called "EP 1" because it is! The highlight of their set is undoubtedly "The night". Vocalist Oscar Pollack dramatically holds the audience attention as he vehemently spits "Honey I'm scared". Although Sundara Karma are not a band on my favourable radar, I can see them move further up the festival billing.
Opening up with a short solo set is DECLAN MCKENNA. He dazzles us with a quirky combination of guitar, keyboards and a drum machine! Declan sports a colourful bandana, although he admits that he was going to wear his treasured Brazilian football shirt. His first song, naturally, is called "Brazil". When Declan performs "Bethlehem" it does remind a few elder musos in the room of Tiny Tim as there are some very high pitched vocals in places.
Review by Martin Stapleton. www.bedfordalternativemusic.co.uk