State Champs (Engine Rooms, 9.3.17)

I drove down to Southampton tonight to watch Albany pop-punkers State Champs kick off their UK tour. The Engine Rooms is a curious venue, quayside, adjacent to a freighter, next door to a car rental. A long, wide room with a low ceiling, it's a bit more "warehouse rave" than "punk rock club". But in the front half of the room, the sound and atmosphere are largely decent.

When I get to the venue, Trash Boat As It Is have just taken to the stage. The Brighton band play sparky pop-punk that's reminiscent of Yellowcard in places and they have many admirers in the crowd tonight. Many of said admirers produce a high pitched sound when asked to get involved by the band, a reminder that I'm probably getting too old for this shit. Not a bad set by any means but I do feel they lack a certain quality to make them stand out from the crowd.

State Champs meanwhile have that quality in spades, producing huge anthemic tunes that burrow into your head. Tonight, they take the stage and rattle off about half a dozen great songs before I've time to catch my breath. "All You Are Is History" is one of the genre's best tracks in years and its appearance tonight sparks pure joy and frenzied singalongs. I talk about enormous guitar riffs all the time but that song has an enormous guitar riff. A two song mid set acoustic interlude quietly demonstrates what a good voice lead singer Derek Discanio has before business resumes as usual, a trio of "Elevated", "Critical" and "Secrets" sending us happily off into the night.

 With their biggest ever UK headline show coming up at the Kentish Town Forum next Saturday, State Champs are on an upward trajectory ahead of a return to the studio for album three later in the year. This was a hugely impressive set from a band with the potential to go far.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I'll See You In My Dreams

 Today is the first day of the 2024/25 English football season. It will be the first season that begins without my Dad, who died four months ago on 9 th April at the age of 76. My Dad and I have shared football together for as long as I can remember. I fell in love with football largely because of Eric Cantona, who I remember thinking was the coolest man alive. I dimly remember him returning to action after being suspended for his infamous kung fu kick on a Crystal Palace fan, scoring an equaliser against Liverpool and swinging around the stanchion behind the goal at Old Trafford. All of this subsequently led to me wanting to follow Manchester United. I am surprised in retrospect that this man from Houghton-le-Spring who spent most Saturdays in his youth at Roker Park to watch Sunderland AFC didn’t object more vehemently to this. Perhaps he saw it as a decent excuse to watch higher quality players than he was used to. Dad always wanted to watch good teams playing good football. ...
Read more

February In Film

  The Fabelmans The film follows Sammy Fabelman (Gabriel LaBelle), a young aspiring filmmaker dedicated to his craft who must negotiate the challenges posed by familial strife. Any resemblance to a real director is I presume entirely coincidental. One of my issues with the family early on is that they’re almost insufferably twee and not a great deal of interest seems to happen. The film’s central familial conflict feels somewhat implausible and is centred around Sammy’s mother Mitzi (Michelle Williams). I have enjoyed Williams’ work in the past but found her overwrought, hysterical performance here rather offputting.   Thank goodness then that Uncle Boris (Hirsch) arrives to drop a grenade into proceedings, explaining his own history with film and the arts and underlining Sammy’s forthcoming dilemma. He decides to get to work on his highest scale production to date, a war epic. These are the most joyous shots in the movie, teeming with invention especially in the deploym...
Read more

June In Film

  The Little Mermaid I have not seen the original Little Mermaid for something like 25 years. This probably aided my general enjoyment of yet another Disney remake, as I imagine that more diehard fans of the original would find more to fault here than I did. Having said that, some of the alterations worked for me such as the decision to give Prince Eric more backstory and a new song. Halle Bailey is perfectly cast as Ariel (regardless of what the internet’s worst arseholes will have you believe) and the quality of her singing is a match for the original. The highlight of the entire film is probably the moment when the crescendo of “Part Of Your World” hits, the waves crash against the shore and you’re fleetingly reminded of when Disney could still stir the soul. There’s an enjoyable performance too from Melissa McCartney as Ursula who brings a certain amount of fun to one of the House of Mouse’s greatest pantomime villains. Unfortunately, what these films lose in the transiti...
Read more