Wolf Alice, Superfood, Gengahr..

Bedford Esquires Lev 2 Thursday 15th May 2014.

Returning to the Esquires stage are Wolf Alice. This North London based quartet made so many new friends and thoroughly impressed everyone when they first appeared here last June. Vocalist Ellie Rowsell remembers it well. It seems that she has a good memory as at the start of the set she shouts out "What's going on Bedford? It's good to be back here" before adding "It's one of our favourite venues to play". This lovely comment naturally raises the proverbial roof.

Their band name is so apt and totally sums up their musical stance. Noisily nasty and snarling one minute, quiet and angelic the next. Loved by the NME, at the start of the year the magazine described them as "one of the most important and emerging artists of 2014". Wolf Alice are greeted by a large and highly vociferous Thursday evening crowd. The band have just released their second EP "Creature" (unfortunately unavailable tonight having sold out at previous gigs). The lead track "Moaning Lisa smile" is performed. The audience are enthusiastic and the songs are more familiar to everyone on this second visit. "Baby ain't made of china" especially seems to go down well. With a soft haunting intro, everything suddenly explodes courtesy of Joff Oddie's beefed up riffs. It creates a wall of sonic fuzz with cymbals crashing everywhere.

Heavy influences abound, none more so than on the Pixies-ish "You're a germ". This is certainly a rather heavier set than last time, but everything changes with "Blush". This ballad almost seamlessly metamorphoses into a beautiful cover of early nineties classic "Wicked game". It's very much an unusual ace up their collective sleeve. Grinding industrial guitars dominate "Storm" along with grungy basslines. As a rather inebriated crowd get more raucous, "Bros" is met with deafening cheers. With nine songs completed, Wolf Alice leave the stage and everyone is hoping there will be one more final offering to savour. A huge roar goes up as the four musicians reappear onstage. "Fluffy" becomes manic and we even have the awesome sight of the bassist diving into the arms of the assembled for a bit of crowdsurfing!

Formerly known as Res, Gengahr are a London quartet who open tonight with a very short appearance. To my eyes and ears it was sadly all very bland and forgettable. Their most notable song is called "Fill my gums with blood" but, on the whole, the set is quite slow with a rather high pitched vocalist.

Superfood hail from Birmingham, a city more renowned for it's long association with rock and metal bands. This lot appear to be keen Brit-pop revivalists with a penchant for early Blur. They are fronted by Dom Ganderton and also feature guitarist Ryan Malcolm, bassist Emily Barker and drummer Carl Griffin. They have just finished recording their debut album and recently released their "Mam" EP. To the delight of many people this evening it is available tonight on 10" vinyl. With eighties and nineties influences, a mixture of harmonies and the odd bit of 'Marr-esque' guitar, Superfood can be summed up in four letters. Nice. Nothing more, nothing less. Their energetic live shows have been mentioned in the music press and tonight Dom is seen doing a lot of the waggly head thing. Ryan's expressive and expansive stage movements are eye-catchingly good. The set all comes to a rousing crescendo with "TV". Naturally this is a song extolling the pleasures of watching television. Bizarrely, the main reason that I will always remember Superfood at Bedford Esquires is due to their generosity in handing out free packets of popping candy (surely a first?) or space dust as the older people might call it. It is linked to the aforementioned EP with the track listing printed on the packet. Now that was nice!