Like many buildings used for arts and music in London, Hoxton Hall has a colorful past, at one time or other a music hall, Quaker mission, WW2 air raid shelter, theatre, and youth arts centre. Tonight the 150 year-old venue played host to Pale Seas a young upcoming four-piece from Southampton, UK. With London in the grip of an uncommon heat wave, it seemed somewhat prophetic to enter the main hall and be greeted by predominantly deep red décor downwards from the ceiling. The gig had sold out some time ago, allegedly in 30 minutes, but initially the crowd seemed quite thin. As the thermometer started to rise to unreal heights, those who stuck around were treated to an empty stage and a half-hour long soundscape accompanied by a faintly hypnotic loop visual of the band ident.
Once it became fairly obvious that the band must take the stage sooner or later, the room suddenly filled and the lower balcony was opened up; blessed relief, until you remembered that heat rises. Pale Seas duly came in. Previewing its forthcoming debut album, Places To Haunt, in full, chronologists will be delighted to learn that the band played it from start to finish, with the final track forming the encore. The short opener, “Different For Once” provided a gentle introduction to Pale Seas oeuvre with drummer Zealah Isabella Anstey’s sleepy backing vocal blending beautifully with lead singer, Jacob Scott’s more nasal tone. The pace quickly picked up. Anstey, with curly blonde locks piled high, switched from delicate percussion to pounding skins for the next song, “Wicked Dreams” with guitarist Graham Poole lacing decorative high fills and Matthew Bishop’s bass and Scott’s acoustic guitar driving things along.
As the set built through successive songs, a range of lo-fi indie, psychedelic, folk and pop influences meshed together to form tight, melodic pieces highlighted by Poole’s electric guitar artistry; echoed, delayed and phased. Scott was a composed front man, comfortable with a little audience banter but keen to keep the set tight. His elevated vocal tone recalled Mercury Rev’s Jonathan Donahue on several songs while there was something of The Byrds about the lazy drawl of “Something Or Nothing”, a song with a melody that quickly stuck. The one spoiler was the dreaded smoke machine which worked in tandem with drenched red lighting to obscure the band and the carefully chosen visuals playing on the large screen above the stage. There was so much red you could be forgiven for thinking you’d stumbled into Mulholland Drive’s Club Silencio.
Smoke and red light aside, there was plenty to like about Pale Seas’ repertoire. Along with “Something Or Nothing”, “Bodies” stood out as pure earworm and the dreamy “Amour” was a delight with Anstey’s harmony rippling serenely over Scott’s poignant lead. Such reflective moods were balanced by the more expansive passages peppered throughout the set when Poole’s guitar was unleashed. The ghostly encore, the seven-minute anti-single “Evil is Always One Step Behind”, was an epic closer, dissolving from gentle beginnings into a post-rock instrumental melt down. In this heat that was what the full house was already ready to do and I’ve never seen a hall clear so fast after much appreciation due to Pale Seas was duly proffered.
Photography by Helen Boast.
Set List:
Different For Once
Wicked Dreams
Heal Slow
Animal Tongue
Blood Return
Something Or Nothing
Bodies
No Name
Amour
Stargazing
My Own Mind
Sleeping
Encore:
Evil Is Always One Step Behind