As anyone with any experience of management will tell you, the three main supporting legs of any successful endeavour are communication, communication, and communication. So the fact that I arrived at the advertised venue to find it in complete darkness (cue: a frantic check of all notifications and social media for updates – nothing found) was not the best start to the evening. Many thanks to Heidi Haswell from support band Zap Euphoria, who happened to be tinkering with her keyboard around the back of the venue and pointed me in the direction of the Sussex Arms. You were a lifesaver! The pub has a basement venue (presumably the old cellar), which actually has a sign at the back stating “The Forum Basement” – well, well, well, the plot thickens, partly because of the stale, musty atmosphere.
Chimer are a relatively new three piece who should not be confused with Chimers (a duo from Australia), Chimera (NI 90s alt rock) or Chimaira (thrash blasters from the past). The vocalist/bassist, guitarist and drummer formed the band as a group of friends and have been putting down their musical foundations by releasing an EP in 2023 and getting a few live shows under their belts. They have a jangly Jesus and Mary Chain vibe and put in a perfectly competent shift in their slightly shoegaze style tonight. They played with plenty of passion and, with a few more memorable songs, may be ones to watch.
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Zap Euphoria are a local Tunbridge Wells bunch who play an eclectic mix of desert psych rock with healthy injections of elements from the swinging 60s, folk and punk. Main man Jude Reid led them through a flamboyant set with some interesting twists and turns. However, there may be a few too many clunky tempo changes at times, which detract from the flow of the songs (what I call the Tomassi Effect). ‘If I Could Then I Would’ and ‘Them With Their Money’ suffered from this and would, otherwise, have been very catchy little numbers. Whilst not quite reaching the heights of euphoria, the band seemed to go down well with the small audience and clearly have the potential to go forward.
King Nun are Theo Polyzoides (vocals and guitar), James Upton (guitar), Nathan Gane (bass), Caius Stockley-Young (drums), and Ethan Stockley-Young (bass VI and percussion). Remember the names because I suspect they are destined for much bigger and better things than this venue. This was the first date on the second stretch of the ‘Far Away From The Farm Tour’ (to promote their second album Lamb, geddit?) but you wouldn’t know it from the tight performance they treated us to tonight (us privileged few). The London quintet have supported the likes of Foo Fighters and Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes, no less, but they remind me of a blend of the excellent Blackwaters, Boomtown Rats, and even Manic Street Preachers at times, in terms of style.
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King Nun’s scratchy punk riffs (e.g. their first single ‘Tulips’), discordant guitar-work (check out ‘Golden Age’and ‘O.C.D.’) and pounding drums are perfectly accentuated by excellent mature-but-still-furious song-writing and hook-laden melodies that should have you reaching for your wallet. A few subsequent listens to Lamb have yielded up some tasty Placebo flavours, as well as the more straightforward Foos reference previously alluded to. Their compositions translate well live, which is all down to the talent, skill and legwork put in by the band over the last eight years(?) A few months down the line, I can see a more King Nun-aware crowd singing the likes of ‘Sinking Feeling’, ‘Selfish’, and ‘But We Live On The Beach’ back to them with gusto.
In summary then, King Nun is an excellent option for those who, like me, do like to break up their more regular diet of heads-down-see-you–at-the-end heavy-metal with rock music that has more of a pop sensibility to it. Having said that, I’m sorry guys but I do stand by my (quite rude) comment about your T-shirt designs!
