The hotly tipped band made an in-store appearance at the Nottingham record store to promote the release of their debut album...
Even as the unexpected April sun shines down on Nottingham, the faithful are thronged in the dark recesses at Rough Trade. It's been two days since Love In The 4th Dimension was released and The Big Moon are in town to celebrate.
And it feels like a proper celebration - entry is only for people who have actually bought a physical copy of the much-anticipated album itself, so it feels like it's a roomful of proper fans rather than gawking hipsters checking out the next big thing. In fact, one guy at the front, Pete, gets a shout out from the band for being a long-time fan and even having a Big Moon tattoo.
After a quick thank you to the audience for coming in out of the sun, it's straight into Silent Movie Suzie, one of the album's highlights. It showcases the band's harmonies and their love of a great "ooh ooh" backing vocal. Recent single Cupid gets a great reception, bassist Celia Archer's admission of tonsillitis phlegm less so. My personal highlight was Pull The Other, it's my favourite track on Love In The 4th Dimension and sounds great live and I love the lyrics, "And will you stay the night? I'd like you to stay the day but my schedule's very tight".
Formidable is one of those great songs that you could imagine topping the charts tomorrow if it was released by Taylor Swift. The End, which closes the LP, is described as the band's favourite of their songs at the minute and they play it that way too. Frontwoman Juliette Jackson puts down her guitar for Bonfire, allowing her to show off her moves and really own the stage. Final song, Sucker, is introduced as one of the first songs that Juliette showed the rest of the band. It may be an older song but it closes a set that points to a bright future.
As an "in-store", it's only a short gig, a breathless 30 minutes, followed by a signing session. However, it's enough to demonstrate why all the buzz around The Big Moon is justified. They also have something that I've not seen before at a gig, a drummer, Fern Ford, who plays keyboards and drums at the same time. This is a genuinely exciting band with some really good songs. On Cupid, they sing, "I'm gonna get this perfectly right", well they're definitely heading in the right direction.
The Big Moon were at Rough Trade Nottingham on Sunday 9 April 2017. Their debut album Love In The 4th Dimension is out now.
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