This Week's Live Picks: 21st - 27th November

This Week's Live Picks: 21st - 27th November

Posted on: 21 Nov 2016

Featuring a band who dress up as ghosts and a band named after a ghost pokémon, there is a spooky edge to the live music on our doorstep this week. There's nothing ghastly about its quality though, with the next seven days boasting a glut of top drawer noise coming your way. Feast your ears.

 

HMLTD and LICE - The Old England, 21.11

LICEHMLTD

LICE are a band who have played a Halloween gig in an abandoned church with pumpkins over their heads, incorporate trumpet solos into their utterly unconventional brand of post-punk and regularly get naked on stage. And HMLTD (formerly Happy Meal Ltd) are the only band in the country who make them look comparatively less weird. Their single ‘Stained’, the first recorded offering other than a few fan-filmed flicks from their raucously reputed live shows, features a dubstep drop and a video that is definitely not safe for work. Both of these sets of arty punks are making serious waves and beginning to branch out from their respective home towns. Catch them both, as well as noise-rock trio Bo Gritz, for free at The Old England.

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Sampha - Marble Factory, 22.11

Sampha

The time it has taken Sampha to step out from under the shadows of his collaborators is testament to the size of the artists who have thrown them. And when those in question are the likes of Drake, Jessie Ware and Solange, this is in turn a testament to the vocal talents of the South London man whom they evidently value so greatly. The release (and subsequent success) of recent singles ‘Timmy’s Prayer’ and ‘Blood On Me’ indicate that he is about to break out into the sunlight. There will be tears at this Marble Factory show.

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Gengahr - Louisiana, 23.11

Gengahr

The Pokédex defines Gengar as ‘a ghost which steals heat from its surroundings; if you feel a sudden chill, it is certain that a Gengar appeared.’ And Gengahr, the dream-pop quartet from Dalston (note the extra ‘h’), share more with their eponymous Pokémon than just a name, playing beguiling dream-pop which induces chills with its often spooky subject matter. Tracks off their widely-revered debut A Dream Outside like ‘She’s A Witch’ and ‘Fill My Gums With Blood’ disguise front-man Felix Bushe’s spooky tales of witchcraft and vampires behind a glistening sheen of sumptuous melody. The results are gorgeous and will be well worth checking out at the Louisiana.

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Tom Misch - Thekla, 26.11

Tom Misch

Anyone who wasn’t hitting refresh as soon as tickets for Tom Misch’s show at Thekla went on general release will attest to just how difficult it has been to lay hands on one, with the pursuit at times feeling like, ahem, Mischon Impossible. I’m not sorry. The hysteria surrounding his trip to Bristol is testament to the popularity he has accrued amongst those in the know with the release of a series of EPs, all of which pair Dilla-esque production with the singer’s treacly croon. Join him as he clambers aboard HMS Thekla this week.

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Nightowl - Motion,  26.11

Bicep

Nightowl, the crepuscular promotion company who have made a name for comprehensively bridging the gap between the nocturnal mainstream and the underground, are bringing the big guns to Motion in late November. It’s a real family affair too: topping a bill which includes the Fognini brothers, Mind Against, are Bicep, the hermanos from Belfast. 

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Article by:

Sam Mason-Jones

An ardent Geordie minus the accent, Sam seemingly strove to get as far away from the Toon as possible, as soon as university beckoned. Three undergraduate years at UoB were more than ample time for Bristol (as it inevitably does) to get under his skin, and so here he remains: reporting, as Assistant Editor, on the cultural happenings which so infatuated him with the city. Catch him at sam@365bristol.com.