Trust Fund | Live Review

Photos (c) Rhys Buchanan

Don’t bother going to see Whiplash if you’ve watched the Jelas. Mind you, their loud/quiet call/response disorder manages to bring every instrument to the forefront in turn, including their voices: everyone gets a go, and the choral harmonies vs. the screaaaming really get you thinking about the voice as an edgier instrument than it’s usually cracked up to be. It feels like they don’t really care how they look or sound to anyone else, that they just kind of fell over and got this good, and that feels really cool.

“How do you feel today Ellis?” “Sad”. Poor Ellis has hit total vocal fry after a weekend’s worth of album launch and a show the night before; but it’s okay, his self-aware melancholia can take another layer of mild anguish. Anyway, bassist Roxy is there to help with the vocal heavy lifting, and soon we’ve stepped into quite another atmosphere. Trust Fund’s earnest hits come in quick succession: the beach-combing ‘Reading the Wrappers’, tear-jerking ‘Idk’ and something particularly sweet and sad about your friend’s mum dropping you off to a gig then driving off again, alone, into the dark. All this is made bearable by some laffs onstage, and thank goodness, or the floor would have transformed into a temporary lagoon.

Ravioli Me Away! sort of sound like a souped-up polyphonic ringtone but in a really great way. Unusually for an album launch, these guys came on after Trust Fund, but you could probably spot them from three miles away anyway. Looping keyboards and endless drumbeats are nailed down by some of the best lyrics about feminism (chorus: “OEEESTROGEN”), unemployment (“I went outside and everything was upside down, and it was raining fivers”) and probably anything else you could think of, ever. They also have the best website on the Internet.

Three bands, three sounds that are light-years apart, but they all comfortably share a bill, at least for tonight. It’s not often a city is blessed with such a vibrant DIY scene but Bristol is one of them, and after a night like tonight’s, you can’t help but thank the gods for the open ears and hearts that are part of it.

Check out ‘Cut Me Out’ right here: