Sea Girls
O2 Academy
Review by Danny Thompson
Nostalgia is a comforting, contagious drug. It makes you feel warm and safe, and when coupled with frantic energy will lead to heightened excitement.
As part of their ‘Hometown’ tour to celebrate their second album ‘Homesick’, London-based four piece Sea Girls splashed into Birmingham on Friday, November 18, playing to a giddy and welcoming sold out O2 Academy – and they brought nostalgia by the bucket.
Though a new band, there is something vaguely familiar about them, almost like they’ve come across an oft-used, successful formula and repackaged it in a way that makes their songs sound fresh but like you’ve heard them before.
A varied crowd, stretching from the young to the old, crammed into the O2 and gave an enthusiastic applause to Lauran Hibberd. With a bubblegum American accent, flowing dress and trainers she came off like a transatlantic Lily Allen.
I couldn’t believe when her between song chatter revealed she’s actually English, despite her perky Californian vernacular used in songs, which makes her sound like my eight-year-old after too many hours watching Tik Tok videos.
But don’t let that put you off at all – the songs were punk-poppy and catchy as hell. Hibberd stomped around the stage interacting with her band, at one point literally dragging her guitarist across the stage by her boot.
But her between song chatter was what I’ll probably remember. If her accent singing is American, her humour, dryer than a very dry thing, is British all over.
“This song is about my ex-boyfriend,” she told the crowd. “A good lad, but he loved his Playstation more than me.”
Another song she introduced went: “This one’s called I’m Insecure. It’s about my Irritable Bowel Syndrome.”
Crowd warmed up by Hibberd’s charming and irreverent stage presence, they were ready for the main act, Sea Girls took to the stage to a hero’s welcome.
They kicked off with ‘Damage Done’ off first effort ‘Open Up Your Head’, and the brilliant ‘Lucky’, from their second album. The latter with the rousing chorus of “I’m on fire tonight, and I’m feeling fucking lucky” being so catchy you can’t help but sing along.
And herein lies some of Sea Girls appeal – their songs are outrageously catchy, sure to leave you with so many ear worms you could start your own farm.
And this is where the nostalgia element starts to creep in. Sea Girls, led by the downbeat Henry Camamile, whose brilliant lyrics combine a self-deprecating quality with an eye on loves and lives of years gone by, are steeped in longing for years gone by.
‘Hometown’, from the sophomore album, looks at relationships between mates as a teenager. Had the band been around when it was on, I’d put money on their tunes being used in the Inbetweeners soundtrack.
But it’s not just the lyrics that are nostalgic, it’s the band themselves. They are like a throwback to the heady days of 2007 when you couldn’t go to the shops, put on MTV or sit in a pub without hearing a new indie band.
Sadly they became so commonplace the word indie almost became synonymous with the word landfill, and soon became a dirty word. With guitar bands becoming uncool this paved the way for X Factor bands, limp, autotune heroines who don’t write their own songs, and inoffensive, red-headed troubadours. Sadly we’ve never really recovered.
But you can’t help but think that had Sea Girls arrived ten or 12 years earlier, their songs are so good they’d have risen like the cream of the crop to the summit of that era alongside acts like Franz Ferdinand or Kasabian.
And this is the adulation with which much of the crowd treated them. With likeable members and songs you can relate to, it’s easy to see why.
The crowd were enthusiastic throughout, a pogoing, swirling, moshpitting mass for much of the gig. At times, with songs like ‘Do You Really Want to Know’, ‘Paracetamol Blues’ and the absurdly catchy ‘Violet’, it threatened to overspill, with one or two rambunctious sorts nearly coming to blows.
Playing well over 20 songs and on stage for around an hour and half, the crowd certainly got their money’s worth. But Sea Girls never outstayed their welcome – I think they could’ve played the whole set over again and the crowd would have lapped it up.
The O2 gig was the second of a countrywide tour. You might struggle to get tickets as most dates are sold out, but if you’ve not listened to them before, get that remedied, because they might just be your new favourite band.