Live – Big Special | Grandma’s House | Saloon Dion at Green Door Store

Big Special, Grandma’s House & Saloon Dion at Green Door Store, Brighton, 6th April 2024

Taking a hand-picked selection of acts out on the road across the UK, DIY Magazine’s Now & Next Tour laid on an impressive line-up in Brighton on Saturday night. Kicking thing off, we were keen to see the valiantly named Saloon Dion and as it turned out, even two of the five piece made a big impression, the remaining three unceremoniously stuck en route with a vehicle unwilling to make the journey south. Still, if they are this good at 40% strength with an acoustic set, we’ll definitely be looking forward to their return trip to the city for The Great Escape.

Next up and continuing to rep the Bristol scene, Grandma’s House provided a blast of zest with some pounding riffs and full force drumming, the crowd filling out with their infectious energy. Plenty to enjoy in a solid live performance.

And so to the headliners and purveyors of poetry-infused punk with a hard hitting message, Big Special looked to be enjoying every second of their recent rise to fame, and deservedly so. A strong selection of songs now in their armoury, they have the confidence and ability to jump between brooding musings on life with a soul-drenched vocal to gnarly spoken-word offerings backed with pummelling drums and spurts of melody. There’s a clear camaraderie between the pairing (Joe Hicklin on vocals and Callum Moloney on drums) as they share an obvious appreciation of each others’ input, a fine selection of tattoos, and an underlying dark humour that segues between tracks and through the crowd. Is Morrisons the best supermarket or does everyone in Brighton shop at Waitrose? Will everyone just waste their money on drugs if they don’t buy the album? Lots of rapport, lots of crowd interaction, and best of all, lots of powerful music to take in and take home. There’s some good stuff going on musically right now and Big Special just jumped right into the ring feet first. Debut album Postindustrial Hometown Blues is set for release on 10th May – you can pre-order here (and you should).