Shepherd’s Bush Empire is the venue tonight for The Wedding Present who are playing ‘Seamonsters’ in full with support from Desperate Journalist. The venue has been through a number of incarnations starting as a music hall near the turn of the century, being used by the BBC for light entertainment programs and being a live music venue since 1994. The Wedding Present are no stranger to the venue forming a part of its musical history with a live recording made in 2005. Tonight was a celebration of Seamonsters their their third album from 1991 which was recorded by Steve Albini.
Desperate Journalist opened for The Wedding Present and put on an energetic performance of post punk, indie rock which was very enjoyable. Sometimes when you see a band for the first time it can be difficult for them to make an impression but tonight left me wondering why I hadn’t seen them before now. The London based four piece band with Jo Bevan (vocals), Rob Hardy (guitars), Simon Drowner (bass), and Caz Helbert (drums)are due to release Gilding the Lily on November 20th. They played a few songs from their sixth album tonight “Terrible Years” and “20th Century Women” alongside a mix from their previous albums.
Jo’s vocals are strong, clear and powerful, Simon’s bass and Caz’s drums driving the songs with their post punk rhythms and Rob’s guitar work recalls 80s indie rock bands with his flashy riffs. The band sound great together having been together for more than a decade can but also maintain a frehness and sparkle of a newer band. Jo has her own vocal style that builds on 80’s post punk, 90’s indie rock but they have developed their own sound..
At one point there is a technical issue which the band resolve quickly. Jo shares that she doesn’t have much stage banter and a member of the crowd shouts out “You are doing really well. Just carry on”. The comment was met with applause and further whoops of encouragement and an acknowledgement from the band of their appreciation. The band play a few more songs setting the stage for The Wedding Present having gained more fans for their music if not their stage banter.
The Wedding present take the stage bathed in red, excitement in the mixed crowd (lots of older folk but also a fair number of younger people) knowing that we will get to hear one of Wedding Present’s best albums but maybe some other songs as well. As it turns out the evening starts out with some old and new songs and finishes with a few fan favourite classics with Seamonsters played in between.
Introducing new song ‘Limbo’ David Gedge announces that “This is the first time this has been played…at Shepherd’s Bush”. It sounds great as does the other new song played (‘Yo-Yo’). The band continue to make their own version of spiky, indie rock, Gedge’s vocals a pleasure to those who enjoy the band. Even though we are here to celebrate an album from decades ago The Wedding Present have not stopped making the music they want to make introducing new generations of fans to their songs.
The band is introduced as the “semi-legendary Wedding Present” by David Gedge as it often is which makes me wonder what it would take for them to achieve legendary status. Or if being on the cusp of greatness/recognition suits the status of the band. To my mind they should be considered as one of the best bands out there and are deserving of legendary status even if this is not something the band would ever want to admit.
WIthin the first set they play ‘Queen of Outer Space’ which is introduced as having the “silliest lyric I’ve ever written” by Gedge. Everyone looks like they are enjoying themselves with band members riffing off of one another, throwing shapes around and making a lovely racket throughout the set, The band play ‘Yo-yo’ which is preceded with the comment that they are going to play ” another new song but don’t worry it’s the last of the new ones.” Gedge says that he needs someone to start the song off because it is such a new song he can’t remember the start of it. Before starting off ‘Montreal’ Gedge tells us how they played ‘Montreal’ in Montreal but that he ended up with terrible food poisoning making the gig a terrible one but that he would look past the trauma and play it for us. Thankfully it sounds great.
Seamonsters is played in full for the enjoyment of the crowd that loved it when it came out and those who have been introduced to it more recently. The album sounds excellent with Gedge well supported by his band which includes Rachael Wood on guitar, Stuart Hastings on bass, and Chris Hardwick, on drums. ‘Dare’ leads to some younger generation crowd surfing (despite the signs saying not to- there may still be hope for us). Gedge keeps the songs moving along noting that he doesn’t want to destroy the flow with his legendary wittiness.
‘Lovenest’ is preceded by Gedge telling us about how the song was chosen as a single despite it being not very radio friendly it hit the heights of number 58 in the charts (back when you had to sell records to get in the chart). You can see his point about it maybe not being single material but it sounds massive tonight. ‘Corduroy’ sounds even bigger and puts a collective grin on everyone’s faces and probably causes a few sore backs the following morning (mine included). An attempt by Gedge to elicit questions for the band leads to people shouting out song requests and doesn’t really go anywhere. Someone asks if he is happy with Gedge replying “I’m never happy, especially not right now” (hopefully) with tongue firmly in cheek.
The final part of the evening (not the encore as the band famously do not do those) includes ‘Box Elder’ by Pavement which was introduced to the band by the bassist when it came out. Their version does the original justice and makes me very happy to hear it again. A few more songs are played before the band wraps up including ‘Kennedy’ bringing a celebration of a classic brilliant album while showing that The Wedding Present have a few more up their sleeves to come.
The Wedding Present Website | Instagram | Facebook
Desperate Journalist Website | Instagram | Facebook
Reviewed by Jason McDonald Instagram | Blue Sky
Photography by Rupert Hitchcox: instagram.com/ruperthitchcox
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