Words and photo by Toby Wilkins
As two members of Flip Top Head – a six-piece art-rock band from Brighton – swap places and instruments in preparation for their performance of ‘My Greatest Hit’, they stumble over each other, sending a tambourine and an acoustic guitar clattering to the ground. They’re good sports about it though, laughing at themselves as they begin to play, seemingly undeterred.
In truth, I can’t even blame them for the mishap, as the stage in The Rat & Pigeon’s second floor performance space is tiny, barely enough for all of them to fit on at once. That small size extends to the whole room as well; there’s… at most… 50 people packed in to celebrate the release of the band’s latest EP, Trilateral Machine.
Leeds jazz-rock fusion band Contrails open the gig with a surprisingly raucous energy. Their amps seemingly turned up to a billion, they manage to make two guitars sound like 100, yet their saxophonist adds a perfect balance with his tender playing, preventing it from becoming too overwhelming. The lead singer seems a little shy (the secondary vocalist/lead guitarist does most of the speaking in between songs), but her enchanting, airy vocals fit snuggly with the more mellow moments, which oddly had riffs reminiscent of country music and even a bit of Midwest emo.
Along with two streaming singles – ‘Weather’ and ‘Pillows’ – they give a pretty lengthy performance with a few unreleased tracks, all of which build super well, and are played excellently. My favourite moment of the entire night comes on the climax of their penultimate track, as the lead guitar goes wildly out of tune (it completely falls apart by the final song), while the saxophonist, seemingly unintentionally, manages to make his instrument screech with an otherworldly tune. Somehow, these two malfunctions harmonise expertly with each other to make a gorgeous sound I’ve never heard before… and doubt I’ll ever hear again.
FTH come on next, beginning with a couple of standouts from their previous EP – ‘I Can’t Wait Until I’m Old,’ and ‘Weightlifter’ – allowing the band to relax a bit before performing new material for the first time. Lead vocalist Bowie Bartlett’s vocals are angelic and powerful, shown immediately on ‘Porcelain Plugs’, as her voice dances between plucky guitars and a subtle tambourine, building to a grand apex, before she pulls it right back down to earth with expert control. The band makes their way swiftly through the EP, although they take time to joke about the drive they’ll be making in their “bumhole van” the next day. For the most part, they sound practically identical as they do on record, down to the haunting harmonies that open ‘My Greatest Hit’ and the burst of energy that erupts in the chorus of ‘What I Really Want To Know,’ although I will say that a bit of their whimsy that I found likable on the recorded versions is lost in the live setting, and there are unfortunately also a few moments where Bartlett’s voice gets muddled in the noise a little bit, making it difficult to make out her poetic lyrics.
All in all, despite a couple of these rough moments, I found both bands to be quite charming, and I can’t help but feel that at least one of them is destined for far greater opportunities.
