Crosa Rosa Single Launch at The Bodega
It feels like there’s been a resurgence in genuinely great guitar bands coming out of Nottingham in recent years; the likes of Kagoule, Heck, Field Studies and Grey Hairs have all been filling our tabholes with their glorious racket, and fortunately for us that trend looks to continue on in to 2016 with all three of tonight’s acts carrying on that trend.
The last time I saw Babe Punch was early doors at last year’s Hockley Hustle and it’s fair to say that it probably won’t go down as one of their better sets. But when you are still digesting that morning’s breakfast and wiping sleep from your eyes you are never going to be firing on all cylinders, are you?
Gigging more and more over the the past few years has seen the fiercesome fivesome become a much tighter sounding proposition. Their spiky energy chimes with much more clarity tonight, and while it can’t be easy playing to a room that’s still slowly filling up (not sure what the issue on the door was, it was taking ages to get in), their ever-infectious enthusiasm and unbridled passion for what they do - like a cherry picked run through classic cuts of alternative rock from eighties, nineties and noughties - that still makes them an utter joy to watch.
With pyrotechnic earth-scorching solos, de-tuned guitars, hammering drums, and vocals that sound like they are being bellowed from inside the centre of the earth, it can only be Mannequin. Hiding behind enough dry ice to make most goth bands jealous, Mannequin’s marriage of grunge and metal is a cacophony of hammering riffs, flailing hair and ear-pummelling volume. If a little dirgy at times, they have an all-engulfing sound that is a widescreen as it is heavy.
Tonight’s show marks the release of Crosa Rosa’s latest single Simper Smiler and is also their biggest headline Notts show to date. It’s impressive stuff that they can pull in such an exuberant and animated crowd to The Bodega, but goes to show how much ground the band has made in the relatively short space of time they have been gigging around Notts.
Crosa Rosa’s sound teeter’s somewhere between tie-died buzzsaw grunge of the late 80s and early nineties and the oft-weird garage rock of Ty Segall and his various musical projects over in LA. Last year’s Pantophobia EP along with their latest demonstrate that Crosa Rosa have clearly got the songwriting chops to match their ambitions, while live, they sound on fire tonight. It’s loud, copious amounts of beer is spilled as the crowed excitedly push forward, and bodies are thrown about. Riotous fun.
To paraphrase that rather ropey hashtag, Nottingham really is rocking right now. Long may it continue.
Crosa Rosa, Mannequin, and Babe Punch played at The Bodega on Saturday 30 January 2016.
Simper Smiler, the brand new single from Crosa Rosa, is out now.
Crosa Rosa Bandcamp
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