Eat Me, Institutes + Fun Sponge. Live at Subside review (23/8/17)

Another free show at Subside on a Wednesday night began with an acoustic singer songwriter named James Leese, singing his heart out to the handful of present punters. I didn't catch much of his set but I was impressed by the passion of his performance. Next up was Fun Sponge (6/10). A delightfully ramshackle duo who describe themselves as 'rock music for kids who cry after sex'. Their music is mostly short sharp blasts of punk-ish rock 'n roll. With song titles such as 'Fuck you' and 'Cuckold' they clearly don't take themselves seriously, but they make a fuck load of noise and seem to have a lot of fun doing it. Which is what this whole rock 'n roll thing is about isn't it?
Despite the crap name Institutes (6.8) are one of the most interesting bands I've seen from Birmingham in a while. They remind me of some other Birmingham bands such as Peace or Editors, yet I still feel that they've crafted a sound of their own. Using an armada of effects pedals Institutes created a huge wall of sound and ended the show with screeching feedback. They've got a similar feel to some of Foals more recent material. They've got that same, murky, sweaty feel to some of their songs, which is only added to by the chiming tropical sounding guitars. It's rare that a new band will appear so fully formed.
Eat Me (8/10) are now probably one of my favourite bands. Which is why I was a bit disappointed to see that few people had come out to see them. This was a shame as Eat Me were on top form. They seemed pretty unfased at the lack of a crowd, and decided to have a good time anyway. At one point their singer said "thanks so much, you guys are all standing up, thats so cool!". He also had a description for almost every song and what it was about. For example, the song mumble is 'about when people can't understand what your saying'. Some other songs were described as being 'dedicated to all those who prefer less clothes', and 'for anyone who's too immature for the person they're in love with'. Despite the sarcasm and mock posh accents Eat Me are a genuinely great band. They have a complete disregard for convention, playing the relatively simple genre of slacker rock with carefree abandon. Their songs regularly change direction, pace and time signature's within their three minutes. It takes a special level of skill to sound as off the wall as Eat Me do. The more gigs like this they play the more attention they'll hopefully get. 


Links
www.facebook.com/pg/funspongesorrymum
https://www.facebook.com/institutesUK/
www.facebook.com/pg/eatmetheband