Review: Sea Power, Trinity – ‘In many ways this was a straight-up rock show’

What makes a Cult Band? What makes you fall so deeply in love with a band while the rest of the world smile weakly and say “Oh yeah, I think I’ve heard of them”? What makes a skinny armed, floppy fringed boy jump and point and point and jump and jump and point? Song after song after song?  What makes the check-shirted fortysomething next to the mixing desk mouth along, eyes closed, to every word? As though the words were scripture.

Who knows?

What’s for absolutely certain, though, is that Bristol saw three of the very finest Cult Bands ever over this weekend. The Harbourside entertained the incredible Belle & Sebastian on Friday, Bristol favourites in The Blue Aeroplanes on Saturday and then, on Sunday, Sea Power (now without that troublesome “British”) played at Trinity Centre. All three bands create their own little worlds and keep their devotees safe.

Starting with the monstrous Machineries of Joy, Sea Power’s world building started early. Layer upon layer of guitar, keyboards, drums swirled around the venue forcing us to forget about the sweltering streets outside.

The Sea Power world is one where Echo & The Bunnymen and New Order are worshipped as gods, one where madness lurks close to the edges, one where everything can be made better with a massed chorus and two hands raised to the roof.

In many ways this was a straight-up rock show, certainly compared to Sea Power shows of the past. There were no eight-foot bears, no 20-minute improvised songs, no death defying leaps from speakers but, somehow, it didn’t matter.

The new album, Everything Was Forever, was strip-mined for instant crowd pleasers; the glorious, ambiguous Two Fingers forced hands to the air, flicking Vs or calling for peace. While recent single, Green Goddess, was a crunchy, pastoral croon-along.

Of the new ones We Only Want to Make You Happy was the one that really hit the spot. Far from some pathetic desperate plea this was a huge, melodic confirmation of everything good, the anthem to a world that lies just over there.

In the way of expert world builders, the Sea Power set intensified the deeper into the evening that they took us. By the time we arrived at No Lucifer there were bits of foliage flying about all over the place. The cries of “Easy! Easy!” chanted back at the stage, eyes raised in rapture.

Carrion whirled us to the finale, cornets, keyboards and furiously thrashed guitars building and building until, at last, Waving Flags crashes over the walls. It’s a stone cold, proper indie classic; the whole place utterly loves it and takes it to heart.

Maybe it’s this that means some bands become a cult. They just write amazing songs, songs that connect, songs that gather a group of people together who want to sing and smile and jump and point.

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Read more: A celebration of Brazilian rhythm comes to Trinity

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