CHEEKFACE, MARTHA & FRESH
Guitar-based indie is alive and well and dammit it is GOOD.
Norwich Arts Centre
Whilst not sold out, NAC is surprisingly full for a warm - bordering on hot - evening slap-bang in the middle of festival season when gigs like this traditionally struggle to attract audiences. The audience is enthusiastic for all three exponents of good ol’ guitar-based, alternative pop playing tonight.
Due to my woeful disorganisation, I arrive 15 minutes into FRESH’s set. This, and the fact that I have never heard them before, is my loss, as the four piece are thoroughly enjoyable. They have one foot in late 90s/early 2000s indie and the other in the melodic end of punk. Imagine Delgados playing with the energy of Buzzcocks and, well, it probably won’t sound anything like Fresh but that is the best comparison I can come up. Well, that or a less deadpan Wedding Present if the Weddos had as much fun on stage.... 15 minutes is not enough time to form a fully informed opinion but I certainly want to see Fresh again and will be checking their recorded work out as soon as I can,
I am far from familiar with MARTHA but have at least heard some of their stuff before tonight. They are more melodic and heavier than I expect and invite similar comparisons to Fresh with added new wave, power pop and the occassional tasteful 70s-style guitar solos. The multi-part harmony/co-lead vocals are a touch chaotic, but in a good way that is almost reminiscent of Cardiacs. By the second song, the audience is engaging in the first of many mass singalongs. With heartfelt pro-Palestinian and pro-LGBTQ+ speeches between songs, Martha wear their hearts on their sleeves and play their songs with as just as much passion.
Hailing from LA, CHEEKFACE take a less punk-inflected indie direction, heading into the angular, quirky territory occupied by the likes of Devo, Talking Heads and New York-period Lou Reed. The speak-sung vocals deliver witty lyrics that are sometimes whip smart (We Need A Bigger Dumpster), sometimes so dumb they’re genius (the three songs called Noodles). Cheekface are committed to their music but do not take themselves seriously, as evidenced by interpolating extracts of DJ Casper’s Cha Cha Slide, Chappell Roan’s Pink Pony Club and Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Give it Away into their own songs. The core recording trio of Greg Katz (guitar/lead vox), Amanda Tannen (bass/vox) and drummer Mark Edwards are all a joy to watch but birthday boy AJ Johnson - “only” a touring member of the band - may be the star of his show with his kitchen disco dance moves.
All three bands tonight are hugely enjoyable, fun and joyous to watch. The audience is beyond enthusiastic, with many a singalong and constant movement. In a world in which guitar music is frequently declared to be dead but lowest common denominator examples such as Coldplay and Oasis can sell out huge venues, I can’t understand why these three bands are not bigger.
