South Coast Entertainment Howling Bells Review

Upon entry to The Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth, concerns were raised on the apparent lack of people. Did they know something different? And were we to have an excellent view of the bands throughout the evening? Fortunately it would seem the audience were en route or in a pub because a suitable number of people were at least able to greet Chew Lips onto stage. The electro inspired sound with little tastes of the keyboarding sound of Maximo Park proves a good choice as crowd warmer and everyone gets moving. The three piece work their way through tracks including Salt Air and new single Solo. Playing on such a grand tour with Howling Bells, then onto the Camden Crawl and The Great Escape Festival in Brighton suggests most people who are hearing it have the same approving thoughts.

With such a wave of 'underground' knowledge tipping them for the top, The Joy Formidable came onstage to further their claims for the throne. As soon as the first electro bolt hit the crowd they were mesmering in both performance and delivery and running through tracks including The Greatest Light is the Greatest Shade, Cradle and Whirring both the trance like sound and catchy choruses had everyone focussed on them. Lead singer Ritzy kept the crowd intense while Rhydian maintained the pulsating songs and Matt even had a look of Dave Grohl's Nirvana days about him as he appeared to be hitting the drums as hard as possible. The set again felt like it was over in a flash and had the audience begging for more. The phenomenal Austere closed the set to mass cheers and clapping from a knowledgable crowd. With the energy and dancing about stage Ritzy even managed to get hooked up on a stray wire which somewhat limited movement for the last 30 seconds but was still able to finish strongly and take the applause accordingly.

The Howling Bells having just released new album Radio Wars are pushing out their sound as much as possible. Having got to this point with the help of fans and not necessarily radio play it is a good opportunity for viewing of the new material live. The Howling Bells cruise through the fantastic array of songs with lead singer Juanita Stein using a large drum at the front of the stage for good effect. New songs including new single Cities Burning Down and Treasure Hunt go down well with fans of the previous self titled album. Of course those familiar songs are also thrown in. Songs like Setting Sun, Blessed Night and Low Happening all appear.

In what made a change from the previous night at the Portsmouth Guildhall which threw in mainly fans of The Ting Tings, the fans here gave off a feeling of superior music knowledge and having chose to see these bands suggests all three have a bright future ahead.