Review | Coax at the Edge of The Wedge, Southsea: 'Playing songs that belong in arenas'
Opener Ben Brookes is an experienced and accomplished performer, but he faced an uphill struggle here against the incessant chattering.
His solo material is strong on the storytelling and worth a listen, and his covers here of Pink Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall and Radiohead's Creep are knockabout fun.
Check him out online – he's better than this.
Temples of Youth trade in jangly indie guitars, dream-pop and shoegaze to great effect. If this was 1989 this three-piece would be on the front of Melody Maker – and I mean that as a whole-hearted compliment.
It's been some time sense I last caught headliners Coax live, and while things have changed since then, they remain a polished bunch of performers.
Last time I saw them about four years ago they were a four piece. Now they're a streamlined trio, still with frontman Andy Muscat and drummer Ben Kennedy, plus bassist Chris Swan. The latter adds some nice harmonies to Muscat’s lead vocals.
The band were building national attention before they played at Car Fest in summer 2019, which turned out to be their last gig for some time. A planned break to write new material ended up being longer than intended thanks to the pandemic.
They made their comeback with a set on The Edge at January's Icebreaker Festival, and now they're back at the same venue for more headlining their own gig.
Their guitar-driven indie/pop-rock is frighteningly catchy. There are a fair few in the crowd singing along to their older singles – Don’t Stop The Illusion andOver It go down particularly well.
Second song in, and on a new number no less, Muscat is already trying to encourage some audience participation.
There's a song so new it is introduced as Ooh, ooh, ooh (pending a proper title, presumably) which sounds like an anthem-in-waiting.
Their sole cover is of Lil Nas X’s That's What I Want, which they make their own.
Main set closer is another new song, Champion, which rides in on a chugging riff – probably the heaviest thing they've done, and is no bad thing for it.
This is a band playing songs that belong in arenas – the world just needs to catch up with their ambition.