February 28th saw rising British indie talent Chloe Slater play The Sunflower Lounge on her first ever UK tour, having released her second EP ‘Love Me Please’ only weeks earlier.
Supporting Slater for the Glasgow, Sheffield and Birmingham dates, The North brought forth an unrelenting set of British indie realness to set the tone for the night.
Lulled into a false sense of predictability by their The Backseat Lovers-style intro, The Sunny’s audience was struck by a wall of punchy drums. With no time to recover from the energy of their opening track, The North rolled straight into the overdriven bass riff that defined their second song, punctuated by cinematic cymbals from Sian Keates on drums. The range from effortless and unbothered tones to spoken-word confession, and gritty near-screams in captivating frontman Billy Memphis’ vocals speaks to a sophisticated range of influences on the band from post-punk, shoegaze, indie-rock, funk bass, and grunge, to the tentative suggestion of Midwest emo. The pace and intensity of their huge sound, anchored by their emphatic drums, compliments the writhing, frantic and urgent energy of their music.
New single ‘Blood Orange’ was an excellent summary of the trademark elements of their music, using silence to create a resounding beat drop for the chorus. The North saved some of their most tortured and melancholic for last, with a comparatively mellow track that evoked the slight hopelessness and naivety of Moose Blood’s ‘Can We Stay Like This (Acoustic)’. For fans of Basement, this is a band to watch.
For those that had dared misdefine Slater as ‘TikTok-indie-pop’, The North’s performance as a support solidifies Slater’s self-perception as an indie-rock artist fighting tooth and nail to climb the ladder, despite the almost pop star nature of her recent rise to relative fame on social media.
Slater walked on stage to a reverb-heavy playback of the profound ‘how does it feel to know your millions could feed a town?’ from ‘Sucker’, to be met by a swaying and jumping crowd, packed from the front of the room to up the stairs.
Between rock guitars and country drums, her experience of a range of music cultures was plain to see.
The emotive ‘Sinking feeling!’, titled with a flavour of irony that imbued her whole set, highlighted powerful vocals hidden in her earlier songs, crescendoing to cathartic belts in ‘Imposter’ and the collective scream of attendees to kickstart ‘Price on Fun’. Artfully switching from sprechgesang-style speech, breathy, sighing vocals, and angsty shouts on ‘Tiny Screens’, contrasting her low, rich tones with sharper accented cries on ‘We Are Not The Same’, and using harmonies to drive home significant lyrics in ‘Sinking Feeling!’, Slater uses the full dynamics of her voice to weave intricate stories. Subtly dissonant backing vocals on ‘Death Trap’ seamlessly reinforced the looming insecurity of the reality of living under irresponsible landlords, and the inability of many to explore other options.
Unreleased ‘Harriet’ showed the theatrical use of instruments to realise the concept of jealousy of a partner’s ex, with the thudding bass and drums emulating the thudding heartbeat of an anxious partner, accompanied by the pace of Slater’s trademark semi-spoken verses. Much like the scuffed docs, smudged guitar, and slightly nervous stage banter, Slater’s unfiltered relatability is an incredible asset.
Her solo, stripped back arrangement on the violently truthful and brutally honest ‘Thomas Street’ from her debut EP brought welcome light and shade. The subtle repetition of ‘stuck’ in her verses was made more impactful by the individual nature of her performance.
Much like The Cure whose ‘Friday I’m in Love’ she covered, Chloe’s work is an amalgam of a myriad of musical, political and cultural influences to create a product with an almost ironic commercial appeal to deliver her punk-adjacent ethos to the growing masses and fellow disillusioned youth.
Slater closed her performance with the viral ’24 Hours’ and the profound ‘Fig Tree’ inspired by the iconic Sylvia Plath poem. ‘I’ll choose a life that is mine’ was such a fitting way to end a night of a landmark tour in her career. With each track flowing into the next through a series of outros and intros, Slater created an immersive experience with an addictive momentum and energy. Indie rock-pop fans of Birmingham (and Sheffield alike, IYKYK) will eagerly await the return of Chloe Slater and her talented band to local venues in the near future.
For Fans Of: Sam Fender, Paramore, Fontaines D.C., Wolf Alice
Tour Setlist: