NAI HARVEST @ Fitzherbert's, Brighton. 22/03/2013

To celebrate the release of ‘WHATEVER’, Sheffield’s two-man emo act Nai Harvest held a record launch party at Fitzherbert’s. Copies of the record with limited edition covers would be available to buy at the show, assuming Nai Harvest ever arrived at the venue. Thankfully, they did. And it was great.

I guess it was something to do with the bad weather we have been having lately, and the fact it’s probably worse up t’north. Or maybe their car or van broke down? Or got stuck in traffic? Or maybe just the fact Sheffield is quite far away from Brighton? I don’t know, I never bothered to find out. Whatever the reason, it seemed everybody was a bit worried as to whether Nai Harvest would make it to their gig before they were due to play.

Their tardiness caused them to miss the supports, the first of which were absolutely incredible. Disembarked are from Stockholm, Sweden and play aggressive, emotional hardcore/screamo with plenty of post-rock instrumental sections and vox-only scream-a-thons. Imagine Explosions In The Sky crossed with Pianos Become The Teeth but with a completely insane drummer. The drummer really was the focus of everybody’s attention during their set, screaming along without a mic and still sounding almost as loud as the vocalist, jumping up from his stool to give his kit an even harder bashing and generally just being amazing on the drums. It’s actually quite lucky he wasn’t wearing a shirt as he would’ve probably hulked straight out of it the way he was playing! Their new record ‘I Do Nothing But Regret The Fact That I Left’ is available now through Dog Knights Productions and is definitely worth checking out.

Moose Blood followed this, and trust me, you’ve got to have something special up your sleeve to follow a set like the one Disembarked just played.

I had been really looking forward to seeing Moose Blood for a while, having rinsed the life out of their debut EP ‘Moving Home’ since it was released a few months back. ‘Moving Home’ is a brilliantly produced six track collection of songs about relationships, coffee and listening to other emo bands, with girls, presumably whilst drinking coffee. Remember the first two Brand New albums? The good ones? Well, Moose Blood are a bit like the Canterbury equivalent of that – layered vocals and catchy songs that are guaranteed to stick in your head. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be Moose Blood’s night. I was quite disappointed and it all sounded a bit messy. The size and setup of this tiny venue can sometimes play a huge disadvantage to bands, which is something I’ve highlighted before. People that hadn’t previously heard them but were aware of the hype surrounding their EP were probably even more confused than I was. The vocalist lacked the Jesse Lacey-esque vocals that ‘Moving Home’ really benefits from, often struggling to finish verses and not hitting the notes. It almost made them sound a bit like a teenage school rock band, despite knowing they are actually great songwriters. EP closer ‘Bukowski’ was the best one they played, although it wasn’t the moment I had been so eagerly anticipating. I don’t want to put anybody off of Moose Blood because I think they’ll go quite far, and I’m hoping I just caught them on a bad night.

Glasgow’s The Sinking Feeling were up next. To be honest, I don’t really have very much to say about them. They sounded pretty tight but were nothing special. They were a bit like Basement, or Daylight, but it all felt slightly like they were jumping on that bandwagon without really doing anything original or different. I ended up going for a rollie even though it was ridiculously cold outside, because I was bored.

So, Nai Harvest eventually turned up! At this point I came back in from my finger-freezing cigarette and it seemed as if the venue had emptied out somewhat. However, almost everybody had just pushed forward to surround the pair for the start of their set. As soon as they began, the place exploded and the crossed-armed head-nodding curiosity of the crowd so far was replaced with a fuckload of enthusiastic chanting, and crowd-surfing that literally didn’t stop for the entire time they were playing. Although the carnage did cause the guitar to cut out a couple of times, which isn’t ideal when your music consists of just two instruments. It’s likely to be even more annoying when you’ve already spent all afternoon and most of the evening trying to get to the gig. There were smiles all around though, and the band clearly appreciated how stoked everybody was to be watching them. A sweaty, beer-soaked twenty minutes later and Nai Harvest had reached the end of their set. Having been given the green light to play one more, they burst into an unexpected cover of Nirvana’s ‘Territorial Pissings’ – there were people flying everywhere and the mic was getting passed around the room with anyone that could get their hands on it “singing” along. A few minutes of complete madness to top off an already crazy set. That record got RELEASED!

Nai Harvest Bandcamp
Moose Blood Bandcamp
Disembarked Bandcamp
The Sinking Feeling Bandcamp