Fat White Family, The Wytches, Phobophobes.

Bedford Esquires Lev 2. 15th February 2014.

According to the music press, Bedford Esquires is most definitely the place to be tonight. Two exciting and hotly tipped bands are in town, each on separate nationwide tours and it is only in Bedford that you get to see them both on the same night! We are certainly lucky to have such dedicated and varied music-loving promoters as Clubs Roar and Biscuit joined forces with Juicebox to put this show on. Amazingly, the price of a ticket is just £6.50. This incredibly low price must be the bargain of the year and I fail to see how prices can be pegged that cheap.

Announced as special guests for this gig are The WYTCHES . Hailing from Peterborough, but residing in Brighton, these lads have come a long way during the past eighteen months. They started 2013 banging out Marilyn Manson covers at the Sea Monsters Festival, then moved on to NME Radar slots before being taken under the wing of METZ. A forthcoming European tour support with Blood Red Shoes is now on the immediate horizon. This is a band that I absolutely adore. They are immense, independent and inspiring. It's doom mixed up with hearty lashings of psychedelic garage grunge. The dirty beats of debut single "Digsaw" open their account. All eyes are fixed on guitarist frontman Kristian Bell. Very few can actually see his face as it is obscured by his long black hair. His vocals are used sparingly as he and his colleagues beat the living daylights out of the guitars and drums. It is a glorious butchery and sweet music to my ears as I lap up "Gravedweller". This surf horror is as lyrically bleak and sinister as it sounds. Kristian cries out "you're scared of the darkness" as a grinding riff spins around the ghoulish words. However, there is a nerve jangling luminosity with the guitar work and an aural miasma pervades the room.
"Beehive queen" was The Wytches summer single. By all accounts "Wide at midnight" is one of the band's favourite songs as it contains all the facets of what they are trying to achieve. It certainly begins in a more melancholic way before reverting fantastically to type and detonating our brain cells. The resulting feedback just makes it more special. Following "Weights and ties" comes their last single "Robe for Juda" and a chance to crank the decibel levels sky high. They are not wrong when they tell us you're "bound to die". Each song is conceived with a certain macabre glee, in fact none more so than their final offering "Crying clown". It's a tale of graveyard girls. Ah! We return to The Wytches favourite topic, namely graves. I jest of course. This trio, with no lapses in concentration, seized upon their chance to impress the Bedford crowd and they certainly did in spectacular manner. A return visit is eagerly anticipated. Terrific value.

Whatever you do, don't mention 'greed is good' to Brixton's FAT WHITE FAMILY . Tonight's headliners are fiercely anti-capitalist and seem to plead poverty at every given opportunity. Recently they had a Pledge Music campaign in order for them to travel to America to fulfil a list of tour dates, including the prestigious SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas. Their infamous reputation the past few years has been carefully and cynically nurtured. Their riotous live shows, often featuring blood and nudity, have caused excitement and outrage in equal measures. Fat White Family also released a controversial, but critically acclaimed, album last year entitled "Champagne holocaust". Many of its bizarre tracks are featured in the set tonight.
This show at Esquires is the second night of their Tour Of Struggle and they open it up with "Auto neutron". Their keyboardist immediately enters into the spirit of things by bopping up and down enthusiastically. Frontman Lias Saudi takes prime position on "Is it raining in your mouth?". He prowls the stage drinking and repeatedly stooping to point his fingers at a nervous looking crowd. Presumably they have heard about past shenanigans and are keeping a safe distance. The band also feature guitarist Saul who played here back in 2008 as a member of The Metros. They certainly look a weird and motley bunch, but this six piece look to be on their best behaviour tonight. They mix garagey punk with old Americana in an organ filled way. It's primitive space rock is, I'm afraid, a tad too tedious for me and my ears only remotely pick up when they perform "Wet hot beef". As the set draws to a close, liquid is sprayed copiously during "Bomb Disneyland". At the end of the show Fat White Family take down their large banner and pack it away. In doing so they have disturbed a drum light. I walk onstage to re-spot it. Knowing this band's seedy reputation I walk carefully. Thankfully there was not a reverse bag situation. For this reviewer, Fat White Family were a band to tick off the list but not one to savour. Might be huge though!

Also appearing were six piece PHOBOPHOBES . Armed with a keyboard and an excellent singer they rocked their way through a pleasant enough opening set.