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“This is fucking crazy, looking at you all here,” NewDad vocalist and guitarist Julie Dawson offers as a sold-out KOKO crowd wave back from the dizzying heights of the rafters. We’re here on the launch tour fresh from the Galway upstarts’ recent debut album, ‘Madra’. This hallowed room has seen much more established names pull much smaller and less fervent crowds, but there’s something in the intensity and intimacy of their shoegaze-meets-grunge sound that pulls people close.
Resplendent all in white and with a ghostly forest backdrop – complete with creepy shadow-puppet goings on – NewDad are inviting you into their own wee universe. Opener ‘Angel’ has that ghostly yet warm knack borrowed from Robert Smith and co. Later in the night, they’ll deliver a cover of The Cure’s ‘Just Like Heaven’, delivered with a new lightness and noted as “one for all you 6 Music dads” – but we must also note the many teens opening moshpits for anything louder than a whisper.
Anyone who says there’s no interest from the new generation in actual bands can get to fuck. There’s a cult fanbase building here from the young hungry for something fresh, and latter generations who recognise a certain class passed down through their influences.
From the haze-y dream-pop of ‘Dream Of Me’ to the goth-y menace of ‘Sickly Sweet’, NewDad’s sound matches their arresting presence. “How you doing London?” asks drummer Fiachra Parslow with all the credence of a frontman as he beams from behind his wall of sound screens. “Just because I’m trapped in the fucking fish tank doesn’t mean you won’t listen to me!”
He’d later emerge from his prison to take centre stage and play bodhrán for ‘White Ribbons’, a track described by Dawson as capturing that feeling “after a ropey night out and you ask, ‘Oh no’, what have I done to myself?’”. Well, we’ve had a heady shot of something strong tonight. If this is what they can do with just over an hour, just wait to see what comes after their next record.
“‘Madra’ is Irish for ‘dog’,” says Dawson introducing the closing title track. “After three, I want to hear everyone’s best bark”. We give a noble effort, but KOKO’s bark is not as loud as its howl. This band have something special. Hold them as close as they hold you.
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For Good Neighbours, everything started when they found their rhythm on social media. The project of songwriters Oli Fox and Scott Verill – who have previously released spritely indie-pop under various monikers – has maintained momentum on TikTok this year, via a lengthy roll-out of demos and behind-the-scenes footage. It’s a savvy, if slightly fatiguing tactic: the duo teased debut single ‘Home’ in dozens of videos, tagging each clip with general statements like ‘POV: you’ve found your roadtrip soundtrack’ or encouraging listeners to indulge in a main character moment.
It’s perhaps no surprise then that the loudest audience ovation is reserved for when Fox makes mention of the platform tonight (April 24). “Some of you may know us from TikTok,” he says knowingly. “And we took a bit of time to release an actual song.” The band are self-confessed super fans of Bleachers, and their blueprint is clear: big, washed-out, atmospheric tunes with lyrics about life-changing friendships that could find a place in Spotify’s Gen Z-targeted Lorem playlist.
This seamlessness is not lost on stage. When played live, ‘Home’, recent single ‘Keep It Up’ and a handful of unreleased tracks slide and swirl into a bright, easy-going pop haze. Beyond giving the former some extra gusto, replete with a multicoloured light display, there’s little to differentiate some of the newer material: Fox’s delivers ‘Ripple’ with a high-pitched cadence, occasionally straining to be heard atop a three-piece backing band.
With a silver chain lightly bouncing atop his graphic t-shirt as he wiggles around, Fox is an affable performer – and it would perhaps be churlish to put Good Neighbours down for the cheerfully uncomplicated mood that their melodies inspire. The energy in the room is very much ‘good times, all the time’, with music that you could call warm and familiar, buoyed by some big-chorus magic (a Grouplove redux, even).
Fox and Verill’s vision translates best during a more freewheeling ‘Daisies’, during which they rip into guitar solos and leap about joyously. It sparks the question: with a little more grit and wonkiness, could Good Neighbours, like their peers Royel Otis, make the leap to festival stages? Having successfully made an impact in an oversaturated online space, there’s enough here to suggest that they’ll soon take the next step.
