swim school
The Swim School sound, although rich in both melody and guitar-driven riffs, is very much a reflection of the present
When a band with a name like Swim School plays a venue called The Waterfront, it sounds like it should be destined to be a match made in heaven. And the Edinburgh trio of Alice Johnson (guitar and vocals), Lewis Bunting (guitar) and Billy McMahon (drums) clearly enjoy playing at this riverside venue, for this is their fourth visit since making their Waterfront Studio debut, back in December 2023. This, though, is their first headlining gig in the larger, downstairs room, where they had earlier supported Pale Waves just over a year ago. It is a Sunday night, but the venue fills up nicely, and many of the audience have clearly made the return visit, having seen Swim School perform here before.
This time around Swim School have a brand new album to promote, the appropriately entitled, and keenly awaited, 'This Is The Debut Album', and during the course of the band's set they manage to fit in all nine of the album's tracks, starting with the reflective slow-builder 'Always On My Mind', and keeping the euphoric 'Heaven' back until last.
The band are joined by a bass guitarist for this tour, and the resultant live sound is certainly richer for it. Swim School somewhat inevitably attracted comparisons to Wolf Alice in their initial years, but perhaps now has become a label that they might well be happier to lose. For the Swim School sound, although rich in both melody and guitar-driven riffs, is very much a reflection of the present – with songs like 'Bored' and 'Waste Your Time' displaying a built-in frustration with the world, and in the direction it seems to be taking. Perhaps it is for that reason that Swim School choose to end their set reflectively, choosing two tracks from their 2022 EP release, 'Making Sense of It All'. As Johnson removes her guitar and goes to the barriers, she reaches out into the crowd to the pleas of 'Let Me Inside Your Head', before ending with 'See Red'.
Opening support came from Dublin band Basht, featuring a classic rock quartet line-up of vocals, guitars, bass and drums. They join a list of energetic and passionate young Irish bands that I have seen for the first time this year and, along also with politically outspoken avant-garde punk Meryl Streek, there seems to be a real gathering of music and lyrical passion emanating from the Emerald Isle at the moment. Tracks like 'Kids vs. Guns', 'Burn' and 'Wild Horses' simply spilled over with anguish and rage, whilst earlier singles 'Stockholm' and 'Vain' are again inspired by frustrations with the current world.
All in all, a bloody good night out from these two strong and still very-much-in-the ascendancy acts, and I have managed to complete this review without needing to fall back on any of the lame 'diving in', 'making a splash' or 'in at the deep end' puns that I had lined up in the changing room. Just in case.
