Featured image and gallery: Gracie Hall
Peter Xan opens the evening in YES’s Pink Room, delivering an indie-rock set bursting with personality. London-based Xan asks the crowd to step forward, joking that “I don’t bite”. Many struggle playing to small crowds full of people who don’t know them, but Peter excels.
Supported by guitarist Noel the Reverend, bassist Biz and drummer Elliot Frampton, Peter Xan makes the stage his own with songs like ‘Glow in the Dark’ and ‘Hostage’. Clinging onto the poles above the stage, he leans over the crowd and gets up close and personal with those in front.
Noel climbs into the crowd to play, before backward rolling himself back onto stage. Each band member has their own flare and eccentricity. With afro-punk roots, Xan is a sure breath of freshness in the music scene, making a defiant impact with his set.
Talk Show eventually stride onto the stage, launching into ‘Oh! You’re! All! Mine!’ from 2024 debut album Effigy. Lead singer Harrison Swann has stage presence like no other, playing a caricature of someone who perhaps ingested something stimulating backstage before the show, wide eyes surveying the audience.
Swann only breaks character once, as he takes a moment to mention it’s a hometown show for him and that all his mates are there. They affectionately jeer for him to take his shirt off, which he does, and his pants off, which he does not.
With Chloe Macgregor on drums, Tom Holmes on guitar and George Sullivan on bass, Talk Show steam through a mixture of newer and older tunes from their catalogue. Swann dances in an eccentric way, really playing into this character he portrays on stage and through the music – it’s mesmerising, almost hypnotising, to watch.
‘Gold’ gets the crowd moving and moshing at the drop of the chorus (“Just feel it, just feel it… Gold”). Talk Show have a unique sound; meshing together post-punk and techno-dance which, along with Swann’s gravelly vocals, create a middle ground for the rave heads and the grunge kids.
‘Leather’, from post-punk experimental EP Touch the Ground, marks the end of the set. With its techno-mechanical chorus and chants of “I wanna get loose” from the crowd, the set closer reduces the audience to a collective sweaty mess, as Swann finally drops his character once more, breaking into a massive smile as he takes in the atmosphere the music has created.
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