The small Thekla club is a perfect place (albeit too small) for a band like Nightmare of You to showcase their peculiar melange of poppy/ airy tunes and intricate beautiful lyrics.
The place is filled with an eclectic crowd of kids with geometrical haircuts and an older fringe of the audience that has found and finds the breezy melodies of the Long Island quartet impossible to forget and reaching out to their heartstrings.
As Brandon’s stated earlier, he is a fan of songs that are able to pluck at his heart string and his band is definitely one that knows how to play with a heart and how to make the audience feel and be part of a moment where feelings and beautiful melodies are able to transport you out of any place, including a small, water bound club in freezing Bristol.
The songs from their debut album has a well rehearsed quality of beauty and they make the crowd dance and sing along, but it’s the new tunes that makes me want to hear the sophomore recording from Nightmare of you. The songs (still untitled) shows a maturity born out of strife and passion and, albeit retaining their original trademark of gorgeous melodies and visceral lyrics, they are somehow darker, a bit harsher on the edge and they are, for that exact reason, more intense and more mature.
This crowd is treated to all the classic from the 1st album and the best song of the night it’s the understatedly anthemic I want to be buried in your back yard, where the reminiscences from The Smiths are the strongest and where, Brandon’s voice and a pulsing bass line conjures a melancholia of long lost love/sex that (if there was any justice) would have the rest of the world on its knees, worshipping this band.
As it is, the crowd tonight knows what is good for them and there is a frisson of real desire and infinite want when Brandon looks at the kids singing along and the music is as physical as the couple of kids making out in a corner.
It’s all in a second, a moment, a flame, desire, passion.
Go and listen to this band.
Get inspired.
Fall in love.
words and pictures by Laila
Click here to read Laila's interview with Brandon and Jo
