Editors note:
In the midst of last month, the The Line Of Best Fit hosted their ninth edition of their annual Five Day Forecast. And this is no line-up to hide in the shadows – having previously featured an array of emerging talent-turned Mercury Music Prize nominees, this collection of wonderful showcases is the perfect celebration of what the grassroots community has to offer.
We would like to praise Rich and The Line Of Best Fit team for yet again bosting a gender inclusive line-up, with female and non-binary inclusive acts taking a whopping 80% of this years programming. Thank you for allowing The New Age Magazine to come and report on this wonderful occasion.
BOROUGH COUNCIL
Hastings based trio Borough Council began the night. Brothers Haydn and Joe Acklerly both stood at the front of the stage dressed in white shirts and wool jumpers holding their guitars as if in uniform as Tom Healey sat further back with his drums. They started quietly but their stony exteriors were quickly broken with shouts of “Hey!” as they launched into their first song. While their opener was less explosive than the following bands, throughout the set Hadyn was captivating in a similar way to Fontaines DC frontman Grian Chatten. Their performance felt gritty, grungy, and emotional. Towards the end, Tom gave it everything he had, his ferocious drumming likely being the reason he wasn’t kitted out in a jumper like the other two.
There was potentially a mild audio balancing issue throughout meaning Haydn’s voice was often overshadowed by the instrumentation. This wouldn’t necessarily be an issue but sometimes it felt like we were missing out on some interesting lyricism. Currently, they’ve only released the track ‘Prescribed’ but have another single launch party set for the 27th of this month and I’m looking forward to being able to listen to their songs more closely.
THE ITCH
The Itch are a bit of a mystery. With no songs released and basically no Instagram presence, it was almost impossible to know what to expect when frontman Simon Tyrie came to the stage duel-wielding synths. But with robot-like noises, witty lyrics, and bags of charisma, all eyes in the venue were fixated on their performance. Their sound is eclectic which isn’t surprising as they’re made up of past and present members of Lazarus Kane, Opus Kink, Regressive Left, and Yassassin. They have an energy similar to The Killers and Brandon Flowers’s particular charm but also contain elements of Dead or Alive and other 80s pop bands, a level of theatricality that’s difficult to pull off. They’re sure to be a favourite of the art school crowd with references to Ursula K. Le Guin and Cafe Oto as well as our current political state. “We can bring down the government put their heads on spikes” Tyrie cried out which elicited cheers from the crowd.
Situated at the back of the stage but still managing to catch the eye was drummer Georgia Hardy who has an impressive background, being a cofounder of The Route, a company intending to help underrepresented people start their music careers, and regularly speaking about the challenges faced when entering the industry as both a woman and as someone who grew up working class.
I’d say to go listen but you can’t, so I encourage anyone to buy a ticket to their next gig so you can experience their unique style of performance. There isn’t anything else fully like this on the scene at the moment, it isn’t something to miss.
HOT WAX
It’s easy to see why Hot Wax are today’s headliner. Also a Hastings based band, Tallulah Sim-Savage, Lola Sam and Alfie Sayers are young but bursting with energy. They feel profoundly female, their 90s female-fronted band influence is obvious in both their music and styling. Sim-Savage’s entire look with her gold mini dress, fishnet tights and glitter boots is something I would’ve dreamed about when pretending to be a rockstar as a kid. Throughout the set they riffed off each other, posed, and played up to the crowd in a way that shows they’re a band who’ve been playing gigs together for years. They already have a semi-large discography for a band of their age with plenty of lively and witty songs to play around with including great performances of ‘Barbie (Not Yours)’ and ‘E Flat’. They also played a new song that was received incredibly well by an enthusiastic crowd.
After two bands who remained pretty quiet between songs, Hot Wax weren’t afraid to speak their thoughts. At one point, Sam paused to tell the crowd that while The Lexington is their favorite venue in the city, “London’s scary, and everyone’s really serious”.
Other than particular clusters, the crowd on Wednesday was on the older side so while they earned a large amount of head-banging, I wouldn’t be surprised to see mosh pits or stage jumps on a different night. They would undeniably be amazing to see at a festival. Somehow they manage to feel both polished and raw, new and old, but either way, they can definitely put on a show.
