We last saw Hot Milk playing in SWG3’s impressive small room and they blew our socks off. So much so, in fact that we make the long and arduous journey to Edinburgh to catch them on this tour to relive the magic.
The support for tonight is advertised as Mouth Culture, but tonight’s date is strangely missing from their own socials. As I’m en route to the venue, I’m left wondering if we’re going to be lucky enough to get to see them, because they’re one act I’ve heard a lot about and have been keen to see them for some time.
Arriving at the tiny venue (the barrier only serves to protect some speakers… there’s no real “pit” to speak of), and it’s confirmed Mouth Culture are indeed playing. We’ll put the absence of tonight on their socials down to a mistake.
If you’ve never been to this tiny venue… it’s a sweatbox. You’re likely stuck in one spot for the whole night unless you want to find yourself at the back of the room until the end of time. You can literally feel yourself absorb the people around you. I was right to not bring a jacket.
Mouth Culture come on and they’re different from the recordings, but I like it. It’s unreasonably sexy, cool, Alt rock that flirts with grunge but never touches it. The heavier bits actually remind me of a more westernized Boy Hits Car. Lead singer Jack Voss has got a hell of a set of pipes on him and can flawlessly growl and scream… although you wouldn’t put that vocal style with this fusion of genres… but here we are. Where we live in a world of bands who don’t really know what they want to be (see Keep Quiet from our You Me At Six review), this band know exactly what they’re doing and they do it very, very well.
Hot Milk come on and instantly blow the roof off the place. If you’ve never been to La Belle Angele, think Slay in Glasgow and you’re pretty much there. So much energy is such a tight space has to go somewhere and the only way is up.
Even though the band are dual fronted, Hannah Mee is the life and soul of the party on stage. Counterpart Jim still puts in a shift and is bursting with energy, but stays pretty much on his mark at the mic stand. Hannah is all over the stage, making it look like she’s playing an arena as she struts with a seemingly giant Flying V guitar.
This is the first time Hot Milk have played live in months and it shows as the vocals occasionally stray from key, but no one really cares. The crowd are basking in the explosive tunes getting thrown at them and throwing back just as much energy. At one point, the fans take a whole chorus for themselves – a cappella – and it sounds wicked. It’s something that someone should have got a recording of, because you had to be there and you missed out if you weren’t. New tracks ’90 Seconds to Midnight’ and ‘Swallow This’ are received with open arms and embraced like a couple of old classics. There’s also a track we weren’t familiar with that covered the state of England, and as Scots we don’t mind slagging off England… Tonight, this band can do no wrong.
About halfway through the set, I check my watch and it’s only nine o’clock. I swear down, by half past nine our headliners were off the stage. That’s it… gig done. I don’t know if it’s an Edinburgh thing, or if it was to make room for the club night that follows the live music here. But if we finish at half nine, what am I going to complain about? I can’t even moan about being out too late (and it’s not even a school night). Let’s do a venue with an 11 o’clock curfew next time and just play for three hours… yeah? Sorted.
Photos by Catching Light Photography
Catching Light Photography
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