Punk music requires one thing: energy. Nottingham's Bodega provides this and more for False Heads, with Finlay Rowe offering his thoughts on the punk trio's electrifying performance.
The punk trio hailing from Essex, False Heads, delivered a short but sweet eleven-song set at the Bodega in the heart of Nottingham. After Kynch, the popular local band, had warmed the crowd up with their passionate delivery and driving riffs, Luke Griffiths (frontman/lead guitar), Jake Elliot (bass), and Barney Nash (drums/backing vocals) took to the stage for the seventh stop of their tour, following the release of their second studio album, Sick Moon, on the 30th of September.
They opened with Day Glow, the lead single from said album. One of the band’s catchier songs, it was the perfect choice to extract full excitement and involvement from the crowd right from the beginning of the set. This was then followed by a number of older songs, including Ink, a song from their debut album It’s All There But You’re Dreaming, which they played fourth. This song allowed Elliot to show the crowd what he could do, as he tore into a grunge, almost Nirvana-esque bassline. Having had the pleasure to speak to the band before the show, they told me that Nirvana had been one of their biggest musical influences, with this being especially apparent here.
"False Heads had delivered a true display on the advantages of smaller, more intimate venues, and how punk music is still well and truly thriving."
Despite the recent release of their new album, the set had a fairly even blend of new and old False Heads songs, much to the delight of the hardcore fans at the front of the venue, all fully kitted out in False Heads merchandise. Griffiths took full advantage of the intimacy of the venue, telling the crowd to get as close to the stage as possible. Frequently throughout the set he would even jump off of the stage and into the crowd, who quickly flocked round him as he pumped out songs with an unmistakably infectious energy. You simply couldn’t help but bounce off the walls along with him.
False Heads had a strong connection with the crowd throughout the set. During their performance of Slease, another song from their debut album, Griffiths stepped off the stage and into the crowd, instructing everyone to get down on their knees, as he did himself. He played the last part of the bridge of the song with the crowd in this state, before then jumping up, along with the crowd, for the wailing outro of the song. Not only did the band have a strong connection with the crowd, but their chemistry with each other was particularly noticeable. It seemed as though Griffiths and Elliot were able to communicate with each other on stage without even talking, meaning they were always on the same page with how they were going to perform the songs.
As their set drew to a close, they focused mostly on older songs of theirs to which the whole crowd knew the lyrics. A particular highlight of these is Yellow, a song in which the lead vocals of Griffiths and the backing vocals of Nash complement each other beautifully on the chorus.
Having said this though, the undoubtable highlight of the set was the finale, in which Griffith’s theatrics reached their peak. In an absolutely exhilarating performance of Rabbit Hole, the song the band consider their most popular, the charismatic frontman could be seen climbing on top of the tall speaker at the front of the stage, and continuing to play the scintillating riffs of the song while he was there, only to then jump off the speaker on beat with the chorus. This roused the crowd more than anything else that had happened during the show. It didn’t end there though, with Griffiths proceeding to venture into the crowd yet again, and hand one of the members of the crowd the microphone, allowing him to sing the chorus of the song, a groaning but passionate repetition of the words ‘me and you’. After leaving the stage, the band didn’t give an encore, but the crowd already seemed perfectly enthralled by what they had witnessed. False Heads had delivered a true display on the advantages of smaller, more intimate venues, and how punk music is still well and truly thriving.
Finlay Rowe
Edited by: Jodie Averis
Cover image courtesy of Indie Central Music.
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