goldtrip. live. the fleece.

who: baltic sirens, hyde, goldtrip and wires

where: the fleece, bristol, uk

when: 20th january 2012

"they’re different and definitely good. i understand why you love them!" – sounds like something i would say about goldtrip, doesn’t it? since they were the reason i went to the fleece on thursday, it obviously wasn’t me who said this though. nevertheless it’s a true testament to the brilliance of their music. but let’s see what else the fleece had in store for us that night.

baltic sirens, a four piece from north devon, kicked off the night and delivered a nice set, and i seriously wouldn’t go any further than "nice". their sound was good but unfortunately nothing special and therefore easily replaceable, and the lead singer's voice didn’t do them any good either. his vocals somehow didn’t fit the music at all. and if all that wasn’t already disappointing enough, there were a few more things that were absolutely out of place. first of all, it’s needless to say that it is unacceptable, perhaps even rude, when the bass player turns his back to the audience most of the time. and the strange looks and weird moves the lead singer tried to pull off didn’t make it any better either.

in retrospect though, baltic sirens were after all much more enjoyable than act number two – hyde, a local band from bristol. they describe their sound as rock/progressive which i’m usually fine with under certain circumstances, but what they played was just a lot of noise to me. the vocals were flat, which was no surprise because the lead singer’s voice was simply expressionless. what’s the verdict: hyde were just a lot of boring noise. and that’s pretty much all there is to say.

so the first half of the night turned out to be quite unpleasant which made me look forward to goldtrip even more. having known them for almost a year now, it was about time i found a way to see them live. their set was anything but disappointing and certainly quite different to their debut ep i try. the new songs are definitely more uplifting (the sound is, since i didn’t catch much of the lyrics). the first thing i thought was actually that lead singer dom little can sing. i don’t know why but it still surprises me when a band sounds live as good as they do on record, even though that should be sort of a given. their songs had a catchy beat, which constantly reminded me of the good old 80s classics, and some great guitar riffs. some songs were leaning more towards rock (journeys for example), others more towards pop (time is all we have). lion's den seemed to be the crowd's favourite judging by the response they got for that song. taking their ep into account as well, goldtrip showed that they found the perfect balance between rock and melancholic pop. after seeing such a performance, i seriously keep wondering why there’s still no new material officially released?! it’s definitely time for a proper album or at least a second ep. in my humble opinion, goldtrip are destined for so much more.

goldtrip seriously saved the night and i could’ve easily managed to survive another poor act after them, but the last band on the bill was a pleasant surprise. wires were up last and sure very easy to listen to. the four piece, based in bath and bristol, managed to win me over almost instantly. haunting vocals, great melodies and their nice melodic rock sound just didn’t fail to impress. hopefully they’re worth keeping an eye on. all in all, wires were a great little extra after goldtrip.

i think it’s safe to say that going down to bristol was worthwhile. and if this line up should come to exist again at some point, the order needs some improvement. it needs to read hyde, baltic sirens, wires and goldtrip the next time. until then, i need some more new goldtrip tunes… just sayin…

  goldtrip - joe rawnsley (guitar), alex brisland (drums), 

dom little (keyboard) and sam lloyd (bass)

goldtrip

 

 goldtrip