Live Review: Demob Happy - Bodega Social Club, Nottingham 13/09/2023
Newcastle-born blistered three-piece Demob Happy - tipped for UK’s answer to Homme’s Queens of the Stone Age - sparkle in tenacious form.
As part of their expansive UK tour in ode of their most recent release - and third album - of Divine Machines in May, they took a stop to the sprawling scene of the East Midlands in Nottingham's own Bodega Social Club.
An evening was promised full of dirty riffs and bombastic energy, and boy we were not disappointed. Brighton heroes Congratulations kicked off proceedings with their frenetic on-stage antics, unsettled by the unfamiliarity the crowd had with a band coming up through the trenches. Donning their prepared uniforms of green, blue, red and yellow, they pasteurised our weariness of the weekday blues and completed the checklist of being a perfect warm-up act.
With a drone of discordance, Geordie-born rockers Demob Happy emerged onto the stage as they begun their descent to the brickworks of rock 'n' roll heights, on 23 Pelham Street. They streamed into Voodoo Science, a new single of theirs plucked from most recent May release, Divine Machines. The fierce three-piece band stood astute beating their instruments like nobody's business, eager to show that they weren't messing about. Godfrey's guttural guitar synergised aggressively with Marcantonio's swooning bass, as he swayed Homme-style with an equally extended vocal range.
One hard-hitting glitchy riff befell into another again and again - Mother Machine into Haat De Stank - all progressive sounds starting to sound more and more like the new UK noise of Queens of the Stone Age. Marred with the swampy funk, they were joined by Shemob Happy on stage, a fantastic display of female backup vocals on new hot take Token Appreciation Society and cult-classic favourite, Autoportrait. Succubus - off their debut Dream Soda in 2015 - felt more like it was taken fresh from the recording tapes in the studio itself than any other song; a clean take on a low-tone symbols dredged from the sewers. Their DIY synths were a mighty feat on Earth Mover while Beatles-esque Be Your Man was a clear watermarked favourite for the audience.
A live showing so equally clean-cut and raw is never an easy feat. But for a band most definitely on the up, it was mere clockwork; a mastery in rock that can only be matched by the individuals brazen enough to do it. I think the only crime of this show is that the band weren't performing in a bigger venue with a more energetic crowd, because they certainly deserve it.
Words by Alex Curle
