Despite some mishaps, and skirting the borders of the Rescue Rooms curfew, vowel-less shoegaze outfit bdrmm performed an impressive, emotional and transcendent set to a patient Nottingham crowd...
Sometimes it seems Rescue Rooms has all the time in the world. A delayed opening of the doors, despite everything appearing ready, wasn’t ideal, but it might be due to a serious lack of patience on my part. This was in large part due to the on/off diversion that my bus has taken. Luckily, this wasn’t as big an issue as I made it out to be. bdrmm (stylized all in lowercase minus the vowels) are now on album three, Microtonic. It seemed just yesterday that I was listening to their debut album Bedroom in the midst of an existential crisis that was Lockdown (how five years have come since then is lamentable to say the least). And with this in mind, It seemed a good opportunity to catch up on those years and tuck in to some brain-melting music. By the end my brain was swimming in a magnetic wave of sound.
The openers of the evening, Swallowtail, are an outfit I’ve praised before when I had the pleasure of seeing them at JT Soar a few weeks ago supporting Marvins Revenge at their fundraiser gig. Swapping the sardine tin that is JT Soar for the open-facing view of Rescue Rooms with its balcony and Chesterfield chairs is to compare Meadow Lane with City Ground: one has a bigger capacity than the other but there is still a shared view from the Trent depending where you look, just like there is with a stage. Swallowtail were just as mesmerising as their JT gig, this time with an amplified comfort to their sound. While it was loud, it was just as captivating as the first time.
Sandwiching both sets were Leeds-based collective Honesty, a group of electronic musicians keen to provide a different layer to the showcasing of guitar music. All seemed confused with graphics being projected on a screen in front of the lads, adding more mystique to them. It seemed as if it could have been anyone doing it, given the DJ was setting up in a bar adjacent to us.
The shouts of “Yes Nottingham!” from behind the screen were like those straight from the overheard conversations I’d have up north, as if you bumped into a mate on a night out. Missing vowels featured amongst brutalist architecture in an attempt to etch a slice of conceptual art amongst the noise of binaural beats and discotech. A whole luminous colour prism tinted around the project again with further cut-up pieces of graffiti. A throwback to wrestling with Stone Cold Stunner / Cold Gunner, “Tormentor”, “I could see this” all things from a Burroughsian novel.
As Bdrmm takes to the stage, I am conscious of the time. 9.30. Curfew at 11pm. I thought it was probably going to edge an hour, but this was the first set at Rescue Rooms to have run past the 11pm curfew. Brdmm hail from Hull and their crowd interaction says as much with their nods to Humberside. The quartet bring on the noise straight from the off, and with a copious number of pedals, the riffs are really ambient yet punchy. The band's influences do shift on each number, with Mogwai being a huge influence as well as early New Order and post-rock acts like Slint and GodSpeed You! Black Emperor.
The set is very intense but not without mishap as lead vocalist, Ryan Smith, found out as his Korg synthesizer fell from its stand, followed by a nervous laugh. Jordan Smith, Ryan’s brother, on bass and synthesizer made light of the fact that the night had turned to a brief comedy of errors. The wave of emotion within the crowd is palpable and the transcendental vibe causes everyone to oscillate gently as if they were at a religious sermon headed by a conceptual artist.
The band's instrumentation does intertwine and flow with synthesizers being in the foreground and made even more so as the core element of the band's foundation. After a good hour of playing there is an unexpected encore that left me frazzled as there was a point at which no one knew if the gig was finished or not. However, the band seemed really appreciative that we had stayed past the curfew. Maybe they hadn’t realised it.
The soles of my feet, at this point, were aching like mad and I was aching to give them a scratch before the night was done. I made it till the end. The aches and pains were worthwhile from taking the plunge into the sonic whirlpool of bdrmm. It was refreshing to head back to my bdrmm and get a well deserved rest for the night.
bdrmm performed at Rescue Rooms on 12th March 2025.
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