Photography by Colin Moody
WITH THE MOST DIVERSE AND EXCITING LINEUP BRISTOL HAS SEEN IN RECENT YEARS, SIMPLE THINGS’ RETURN TO THE CITY WAS NOISY, EXPLOSIVE AND WONDERFULLY CHAOTIC
Bristol is home to several day festivals, with Dot to Dot, Outer Town and Ritual Union all coming up soon. One name we’ve been missing recently is Simple Things, who, while promoting gigs throughout the year, did not throw their usual multi-venue festival in 2023.
The event spans across central Bristol, from small pubs like Sportsmans to the huge and newly renovated Bristol Beacon. Lineup-wise, we are treated to a huge variety, including noise, indie, hip-hop, techno and everything in between. Experimental music filled every venue and solidified Simple Things as a force to be reckoned with when it comes to curation.
Kicking things off were the wonderfully bizarre Ex Agent who filled Sportsmans with their highly experimental jazz, noise and post-rock fusions. Their set was absolutely not for everybody, with the keyboard slamming, horn screeching and terrifying interpretive dance proving to be a particularly grating combination. I mean this in the best possible way. The chaos they created so early in the day made the sunlight outside seem incredibly jarring after spending half an hour in their dark, dark world.
Punk/hip-hop artist Wu-Lu graced the main stage of Bristol Beacon’s Beacon Hall, with their fusions of sound sounding just as fresh as they did with the release of ‘LOGGERHEAD’. Despite a relatively tame crowd, the entire band gave a wild performance. In Rough Trade, Viji hypnotised the room with her grunge-pop offerings while DITZ took over Strange Brew for a noisy, moshy warm up of their upcoming tour with IDLES.
SWX had some of the finest offerings of the day. The Bug Club were a wonderful break from the noisy chaos of the rest of the day, firing through a lengthy tracklist of short but very very sweet tracks both old and new. They really are one of the most loveable bands around, with their bluesy rock and roll guitar solos, hilarious lyrics and family chemistry. I’m sure they will be on many festival lineups this year – don’t miss them.
Sticking around in SWX was the move for the next few hours. Dublin’s Gilla Band were up next, proving themselves to be one of the best live bands currently performing. Their setlist took from all corners of their discography, with highlights including ‘Bin Liner Fashion’, the short but brutal ‘Heckle The Frames’ and fan favourite Blawan cover ‘Why’d They Hide Their Bodies Under My Garage?’.
The band’s energy is so sinister, with Dara Kiely’s vocals jumping from nonchalant rambling to deathly screams. Meanwhile, Alan Duggan gives one of the most energetic, aggressive and possessed guitar performances I have seen in a long time.
Whenever you see Warmduscher on a festival lineup, you know they’re a good bet for a good time. With the most dedicated crowd of the day, they played all of their hits, while frontman Clams Baker Jr. spent almost the entire set leaning over the barrier, soaking up the love and seeming genuinely grateful for every fan screaming in his face.
In one of the most baffling decisions of the day, Fat Dog were placed on the Bridgehouse Stage or, in other words, the lobby area of the Bristol Beacon. As the room started to fill, I’m sure security were quickly becoming aware that this performance was going to be a lot livelier than they imagined.
In true Fat Dog fashion, their combination of post-punk, techno and all sorts of other genres got their adoring fans extremely excited and extremely rowdy. With crowd surfing, a room-sized mosh pit and a few dog masks too, they delivered one of the wildest moments of the whole festival. On the balconies above, the tamer fans watched, looking down from above on the chaos unfolding below them.
Closing off the day were SCALER, the Bristol band who can’t help finding themselves playing excellent festival times for all the wrong reasons. After filling in for Viagra Boys at Forwards last year, this time around they found themselves as the extremely last minute replacements for headliners Giant Swan, after details emerged about the past relationship of one of their members.
SCALER more than earned their spot as headliners. Filling the huge Beacon Hall with their live electronic set, you could never have known they were only told about the festival the day before. The visuals, as always, were insane, hypnotically matching the pulsing beats and insane sounds of the band. SCALER are absolute legends on the Bristol scene and they prove this again and again.
As my first festival of the year, Simple Things set the bar astoundingly high.
Originally published for CLUNK Magazine
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