APHRA, SASHATHEBAND, DH TEMPLE & CHLO ATLANTA

Tonight marks the first of what will (hopefully) be a regular series of events under the Maddermarket’s Dead Trademmark sub-brand highlighting Norfolk’s young and up-and-coming artists. This is the first gig I have been to at the Maddermarket (and, to my shame, the first event I have attended here for an absolute age).

The Maddermarket is a good - if not great (yet) - venue for live music. The sound is decent, if too loud to be comfortable but too quiet to be fully audible with earplugs in (for me and my rubbish ears, at least). The stage set-up is a little weird. The drum kit is set up stage left and the backline is quite close to the edge of the stage, meaning the bands don’t have a lot of room to perform. I don’t know however how much control the venue has on either of those things, however. Oh, and on the plus side, the staff are all very friendly and the bar prices are sensible, something it would be great to see replicated in certain other Norwich venues…

Opening proceedings is CHLO ATLANTA’ set of solo folk. At times, Chlo’s sound is kinda acoustic, shoegazey dreampop. Superficially simple, it is compelling. Chlo’s vocals mix an almost spoken word delivery with “proper” singing – the former bringing to mind Dry Cleaning’s Florence Shaw and the latter more akin to Hope Sandoval of Mazzy Star. The guitar playing is reminiscent of early Leonard Cohen, although it occasionally veers into drone-folk and closing song All The Best has a touch of the late great Michael Chapman about the intro. For all those analogies, a quick chat with Chlo after her set suggests that Joni Mitchell may be the best comparison.

A last minute replacement for The Wallflowers (presumably neither the folk band or Jakob Dylan’s project of the same name), DH TEMPLE is the solo project of Dominic Temple of Red Mar. Mixing vocals and guitar over laptop generated backing, tonight’s set is less overtly goth/post-punk than last time I saw him, with an added 80s leftfield pop feel. The vocals are a mix of Psychedelic Furs’ Richard Butler and Peter Murphy of Bauhaus. I have to say I much prefer Temple’s singing at the lower end of his range. Closing with Jeff Buckley’s Gutshot Glitter is a bold move and Temple’s version is as close to the original as This Mortal Coil’s take on Tim Buckley’s Song to the Siren…

Next up is SASHATHEBAND, featuring tonight’s organiser Acer (apologies if I have got the spelling wrong) with a sound that takes in new wave, ska, powerpop, psychedelic whimsy, 70s jam band choogle and classic rock. In principle, that should be a sonic mess but the five piece pull it together with verve and style. This is the first time I have seen SASHATHEBAND but it will definitely not be the last.

And so to APHRA. On vox and guitar, we have Aphra herself resplendent in an evening dress. Backing her up are the shirt and tie wearing four piece of Mitch on drums and backing vox, bassist Sam, Jack of Mama Oh No on guitar and Phil on guitar and keys. There are a few tech issues at the start of the set with Mitch having neither monitor nor mic but these are soon resolved.

I’ve seen Aphra a good few times and the sets have varied from bouncy, high energy ska-inflected pop to more considered pop-rock. Tonight’s set is definitely in the latter camp, having a - dare I say it? - mature, classic rock feel that, at times, brings to mind Rumours-era Fleetwood Mac. Treading Water is a 70s soul-rock crossover, straight outta Muscle Shoals. A new song, which may be called Spinning Out or Can’t Explain Myself, has an upbeat, jaunty, almost calypso feel. Finally, there is Toast, which starts all funk-dub-reggae before turning into the hypermanic primal scream therapy session it has always been.

All in all, this has been a great albeit not perfect introduction to Dead Trademmark and I am certainly looking forward to coming back to the Maddermarket for more of this.