Put away your umbrellas, our English Weather just got a whole lot brighter. Coventry five-piece FEET adorned the Rescue Rooms stage with enough indie-pop to pack a punch, and we headed down to get our fix...
Considering the nights are drawing darker, the sun isn’t setting on the support acts any time soon. With a tangible buzz in the air – that lingering happy hour feeling keeping us well entertained amongst ourselves – Otala surreptitiously appear on stage like that of a snail. An apt band name, yet they’re not ones to hide within their shell. Orchestrating a soundscape unlike any other, they navigate this cacophonic labyrinth of spoken word and augmented jazz beautifully, and it truly lulls you into a false sense of security. You don’t quite know when one song finishes and the other begins, yet the crowd tonight has no qualms. Bonus points: they’re a local band just on your doorstep, so you’ve got no excuse not to check them out, really.
You’d be forgiven for thinking L’Objectif were headlining tonight. Adopting that support band trope with an invigorating twist, their grunge undertones literally come alive beyond the music.
“Who’s excited for Feet? Well, tough. You’ve got us now!” Their self-deprecating quips endeared us to their perceptive distortion of what we’ve come to know as indie music. Standout singles Puppy and Drive In Mind encapsulated that full thumping, full bass-tastic vision for vigour; the audience seemed to reciprocate, head boppin’ and toe tappin’ in sync.
To have both feet on the ground for tonight’s show would be a grave misjudgment. They’re blowing the sensible socks off their audience and inviting themselves into the dissonance from their initial crash landing—sorry, from Good Richard’s Crash Landing. FEET open their show with a jingle-jangle, seaside-esque harmony of discontentment. It’s punctured by plinky guitar chords and charismatic, tambourine-waving frontman George Haverson smashing the instrument’s frame against him frantically. Oh, we’re in for a riiiide.
Better Than Last for all intents and purposes lives up to its name. Crooning alongside a Strokes reminiscent crunch, it falls perfectly into Changing My Mind Again. At this point of the set, the audience embraces a much bouncier approach to their vibing, adopting a pogoing style, an – albeit very small – mosh pit so early into the night. Even if you are careening around the crowd just a little too much your eyes never stray from the band; with both guitarists and bassist cavorting about the stage – staccato notes and hard-hitting drums galore – their enthusiasm rivals that of our own.
During Why Would I Lie? Haverson stands on the drum riser, arms and voice flailing in a physical manifestation of the song’s back-and-forth troubles. It’s rather cinematic how FEET capture the mundane yet magnificent nature of British culture: lyrical topics including traffic congestion and service station toilets are a plenty in Chalet 47 and we’re lapping it up.
They’ve got a real knack for making the gritty, unpretty, everyday parts of life moments to speak about, earning a warm reception from anthemic English Weather. We’re bright-eyed and it’s perhaps with these closing melodies that we realise just how special this show is: they know how to write a catchy tune or two, and we know they won’t be playing venues this small for much longer.
So, with Goodbye (So Long, Farewell) still ringing in our ears, FEET’s world might be the lighthearted indie-rock kind, but it’s pleasingly disjointed too. Putting one foot in front of the other to leave was a harder task than I realised. What a crackin’ show.
FEET performed at Rescue Rooms on 6th October 2024 with support from Otala and L'Objectif.
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