Review: Prisma Living Room Gig – 15 May 2015

Prisma, Nottingham-based clothing brand, always put on great events. So it’s no surprise that Friday night was a great night; with an array of talented musicians, good people and great hosts, it was a lovely way to welcome the weekend.

Anyways, here’s what I thought of the acts…

Agnes Bella

Performing covers from the likes of Pink Floyd, to Jamie Kullen, to Gorillaz (she played Feel Good Inc. and even rapped the verse, it wasn’t bad at all…) Agnes Bella performed a varied, light-hearted set. She even performed LMFAO’s ‘I’m sexy and I know it’, which was interesting to say the least. Although there were some occasionally wobbly vocals and slightly hesitant guitar playing, it was a great way to start the night.

Tom McCartney

Next up was Tom McCartney, a 15-year old blues player who played like a bleedin’ veteran. His vocal delivery was first to surprise, having a rough, Tom Waits-esque groan, powerful-yet-controlled, and seriously surprising the whole lot of us in the room. Playing a mix of originals and covers, Tom’s set was one of the best of the night; you have to check him out, the kid has some serious, serious talent.

BayboSquaybo

BayboSquaybo played what was a lovely arranged, stripped-back set consisting of three-EP tracks and some covers by the likes of Weezer and Gorillaz (yep, everyone seems to be in the Gorillaz mood at the moment). With some real funky acoustic vibes, the band really showed their talent for the craft of song-writing and melody, playing highly contagious arrangements of their own tracks and covers. Despite the room becoming somewhat sauna-like, their music was certainly chiller… okay bad pun is bad but they really were enjoyable.

Field Studies

If you haven’t heard of Field Studies, the Nottingham-based post / alternative rock outfit, well, you probably should have. Currently gaining plenty of momentum, playing gigs all around the area, as well as getting air-time on BBC introducing and releasing their debut EP ‘Celestial’ to great reception, I was pretty excited to see how these guys would change their huge post-rock sound to suit that of a living space.

The first thing that was apparent was that there was only two of them; frontman Chris playing both piano and rhythm guitar (obviously not at the same time), and Kasper singing backing vocals and supplying the sweet melodious leads (as well as smashing some percussion out with his feet). It was really quite a spectacle, seeing guitar-led tracks such as ‘Celestial’ being piano-led, with the reverb-drenched guitars still in play, and Chris’ vocals being forever emotive and fantastic throughout their 25 minute set. It was an emotional but perfect way to end the night, as everyone chilled and appreciated just how great of musicians the Field Studies guys are.

All-in-all, Prisma put on a great little show. With good people and varied bands, you couldn’t have asked for much more. Safe to say I’m truly excited for the next event that the guys will put on.

Review by Joshua Hall