Bambara

After an explosive delivery of ‘Serafina’, they slip into the operatic closing track on Stray ‘Machete’.

Brooklyn Rockers grace the Norwich Arts Centre – their first time in the city and the venue.

The night opens with London-based Deep Tan. They’re angular and stripped back. They sound like ESG, but with guitars and spidery melodies. While their recorded music tends to be sucked dry, the wide-open Arts Centre adds haunting quality to the music. It sounds like something is missing in the mid-tones at times, but the skeletal sound remains captivating. Their music retains an unpredictability. The bass gets a bit lost in the Arts Centre’s acoustics and at times it can feel a bit loose. Blended a contemporary pop approach with post-punk angularity.

Bambara made a name for themselves initially making loud, noise infused rock ‘n’ roll – after Stray and the explosive single ‘Serafina’, they cemented their place and name.

After their first song ‘Miracle’, the entire band already put their all into the performance. This is an energy that doesn’t let-up throughout the whole show. The band are shrouded by various blue and red lights, creating a pretty unphotogenic, but rather moody backdrop. Reid seems like a man contained – too separated from the crowd. From the start he’s lurching and leaning from the stage, across toward the barrier. There’s a torrential amount of energy in this band, throughout the gig they generate a massive wall of feedback and growling guitars. The haunting, ghostly synthesisers surge and pull amongst the driving drum beats – the sheer scale of sound fills the rafters of the Arts Centre. The whole gig was very loud – possibly one of the loudest gigs recently at the Arts Centre – a bad night for those who forgot their earplugs.

Despite being a Saturday night, it was a surprisingly quiet evening and the band’s raw energy didn’t visibly rub off on the audience. This doesn’t seem to affect their dedication, Reid paces and stamps around the stage, embracing his bandmates and members of the crowd, stretching his body across the gap between stage and barrier to hold them. With a prophesizing delivery like Nick Cave, Reid Bateh has exactly what you want in a person fronting your band. Meanwhile the rest of the band create those distinct frenzied cacophonies of noise the Bad Seeds and their contemporaries were so fond of.

After an explosive delivery of ‘Serafina’, they slip into the operatic closing track on Stray ‘Machete’. With another closing operatic encore, the band leave the stage. In their wake they leave a quietening calm after the storm Arts Centre and a dent in the vocal monitor courtesy of Reid’s Cuban heel.