MAQUINA + STAFF PARTY + M. WOODROE – THE HOPE & RUIN, BRIGHTON 21.2.25
Love thy Neighbour have really pulled it out of the bag this evening with three awesome bands, two who are first’s for me. It may have been wet outside, but things inside The Hope & Ruin were really heating up. So let’s get into it…
MAQUINA – 10pm
Hailing from Lisbon, we have Maquina (which means ‘Machine’ in English). This trio are here to make noise and noise they make. Repetition, industrial techno, progressive psychedelic rock is the name of the game. They have two albums under their belt, the most recent being ‘Prata’ (which means ‘Silver’ in English) which came out on Fuzz Club in April 2024. The trio comprise of João (guitar), Tomás (bass), and Halison (drum and vocals).
During the set up some solid techno was playing whilst all three members of the band were checking equipment, plugging bits in, adjusting settings etc., when out of the blue Halison behind the drums bellowed into his microphone, what he said I’m not too sure, but it instantly prompted the techno to stop and guitarist João’ to start bobbing and weaving about his area of the stage with his guitar wailing and screeching with blasts of feedback noise. The go flag was well and truly raised as Tomás’s bass ignited into the solid repetitive line our journey was going to take us on, Halison’s drumline fired up and off we went. The first song of this trip was ‘:.’ from their 2023 ‘Dirty Tracks For Clubbing’, an album which comprised of 4 songs, most over 10 minutes in length, each song name literally being dots representing the track number.
With the darkened stage and just red pulsating lights it really created an amazing mood and setting for the music. The 3 band members often becoming silhouetted making you feel at one with their grooves.
The musical approach of the band is organic, no backing tracks or pre-set shenanigans, their music just flows and flows, feeding off each other. Even during that first song, which ended up lasting 15 minutes João’s guitar string broke, but did that stop proceedings, hell no! Halison roared into his microphone continuing the endless dance drumbeat and his roars. Tomás was dancing all over the place, his bass line utterly thumping. João calmly headed to his bag behind the amps, got out a new string and re-strung it practically in the dark, once done back he went straight back into it like a jack in a box sprung.
After introducing the band, Halison said they were from Lisbon and this was the first time they had played Brighton, we were treated to three songs from their most recent album, the first being ‘Desterro’; this was the shortest in the set by far, clocking in at around 2 minutes, but boy was that fast and frantic. Then came ‘Body Control’, a slow steady building song. Halison took to standing on top of his drum kit and posing whilst part hanging from the ceiling during this, Tomás powered on with the bassline, always shaking his mop of hair side to side. The final song in the trilogy was ‘Denial’, a darker, more menacing sound song with a change to blue lighting to match.
“It’s Friday night and time to party, would you like to dance?” bellowed Halison into the microphone as we went into another beat frenzy; ‘.’ from their first album ‘Dirty Tracks For Clubbing’. Dance I did, another meaty 10 minute song, I was clocking up the steps on my phone tonight that’s for sure.
The final song of the night was ‘Concentrate’ another song that built and built, getting faster and faster. Halison teased us as the song came to end as curfew was hitting, “Another 2 minutes?” and they went straight back into the song, with João running down into the crowd with his guitar, rubbing the strings against the pillar. A minute later it was sadly all over, but we had an amazing 55 minute 6 song set.
What a set and experience this was, already a contender for my ‘Top 5 Gigs Of The Year’ and we are only in February. I’ve never seen a band that just are constantly moving like that. Each band member with their long shaggy hair swinging around covering their faces, but their moustaches still visible, playing in a pretty dark environment with relentless flashing lights. The machine-like dance beat drumming from Halison with his screams of “check” and who knows what else with a major echo effect. João’s non stop dancing and leaping about with his guitar, sweat pouring off his face, constantly tapping different pedals and knobs for all those wonderful sounds and Tomás with his bass, whilst he didn’t have a load of pedals, I spotted he was playing left handed with a right hand guitar upside down, so playing from bottom string up, his head always swaying and his body dancing a jig to the drums. As they said, this was their first time in Brighton, please God don’t let it be their last! This was the penultimate night of their first UK tour, so fingers crossed they return soon.
Maquina:
Halison – drums and primal vocal outbursts
Tomás – bass
João – guitar and FX
Maquina setlist:
‘:.’ (from 2023 ‘Dirty Tracks For Clubbing’ album)
‘Desterro’ (from 2024 ‘Prata’ album)
‘Body Control’ (from 2024 ‘Prata’ album)
‘Denial’ (from 2024 ‘Prata’ album)
‘.’ (from 2023 ‘Dirty Tracks For Clubbing album)
‘Concentrate’ (from 2024 ‘Prata’ album)
Staff Party – 9:10pm
Staff Party are a three piece band who formed in Brighton in 2020. They are made up of Ed Lamb (guitar/vocals), Chazz Welfare (bass), and Jack Taylor (drums). They are a new band to me and from what I listened to whilst doing my homework beforehand, they sound loud, in fact… that should be very loud. They describe themselves as “Brighton Noise rock / Post-Hardcore Power trio”….yep, I can confirm that is very true.
We were treated to a 28 minute blistering 6 song set by the trio. The first song ‘The End Is Nigh’ was taking no prisoners, and nor was the second song ‘Biscuit’. Ed utterly shredding his guitar, the sound very much borders on or definitely has flavours of Metal & Nu-Metal. At times they reminded me a little of the band Therapy?.
‘10,000 Stones’ came next, Chazz’s bass was coming through loud and strong during this one for quieter spells, before Ed’s electrifying guitar and Jack’s mad skills drumming hammered in.
After ‘Steam’ Ed pointed out Jack the drummer had his hand in a bandage due to a smelting accident, but joked it was more to do with some hot soup. It certainly didn’t hinder him in his performance tonight though, nothing but energy and thunder in that drumming.
Next, came two new songs billed by their working titles ‘Big New Song 2’, another fine lively number, this was followed by ‘Fast New One 1’, and fast and frantic it was.
The final song of the evening was the band’s forthcoming single, ‘Wasteland’, one they were heading into the studio to record in the coming morning. It was a strong finisher to the set.
It’s all meat and no filler when it comes Staff Party, heaven knows how just three of them can bring such a multi-layered powerful noise. Ed had an interesting pedal station set-up with a Helix LT which I am sure added to the magic. But by heck the three of them are talented musicians for sure.
They most definitely did bring the noise, far more noise than I had anticipated, smoking hot stuff, not my usual sort of music, but I very much enjoyed it, it is worthy and best appreciated with a good moshing crowd I suspect. Crazily the band were selling t-shirts after for a mere £5, an utter bargain, go catch them when they play in support to Ditz at Chalk on 4th of April – Tickets HERE.
Staff Party:
Ed Lamb – lead vocals, guitar
Chazz Welfare – bass
Jack Taylor – drums
Staff Party setlist:
‘The End is Nigh’ (unreleased)
‘Biscuit’ (unreleased)
‘10,000 Stones’ (unreleased)
‘Steam’ (unreleased)
‘Big New Song 2’ (working title) (unreleased)
‘Fast New One 1’ (working title) (unreleased)
‘Wasteland’ (unreleased)
M. Woodroe – 8:20pm
M. Woodroe are a new Brighton based alternative indie four piece band consisting of ‘M’ on vocals, ‘B’ on guitar, ‘J’ on bass and ‘O’ on drums. Yes, that is correct, just letters. I am not too sure how long they have been on the scene as they seem to have suddenly appeared out of nowhere, but I was lucky enough to catch them when they were a last minute addition to a Hidden Herd evening at The Hope & Ruin back in January. I very much enjoyed that evening, so to have them in support this evening, is the icing on the cake for me.
Bang on 8:20pm the band struck up with some shimmering drums and mad effects pedal noise from B before he started a slow guitar melody taking us into ‘What A Shame’. With M’s haunting vocals and O’s ticking drums in the quieter spells it was a fab start, the guitar as it progressed took quite the explosive grunge feel.
Whilst all of the band’s songs are currently unreleased, the next one ‘Julie’ was getting its first airing today. Some deep throbbing bass from J on this one, M also taking up her guitar, but it’s B’s grungy guitar punctuating through the song like a chainsaw that hits the sweet spot for me.
‘Sweetness, Sweetness’ saw M take a more talk style with her vocals, she really does have a wonderful range of vocal styles, some soft and quiet, others songs, she really was belting it out, never faltering, she certainly has the gift.
Beckoning the crowd to come closer we were treated to two slower and moody numbers ‘A Veil’ and ‘Stalactites’, these both had the crowd held in a trance. Now this is something I feel M really has, a spellbinding stage presence, totally captivating.
The band went straight into the final song of their set ‘Carte Blanche’, a far more lively one to close proceedings. Both M & B working those guitars, with M playfully pushing into B, their guitars together, then working her way over to J for a guitar face off. Screaming vocals, full on drumming from O and plenty of juicy bass from J…Wow!
I thoroughly enjoyed the set and they are fast climbing my list of favourite local bands. I’ve bought my t-shirt already. I highly recommend you get out and catch the band, they are doing a number of shows over the coming month in Brighton, at The Pipeline, Green Door Store, Daltons, and The Folklore Rooms, links can be found on their linktree.
M. Woodroe:
M – vocals
B – guitar
J – bass guitar
O – drums
M. Woodroe setlist:
‘What A Shame’ (unreleased)
‘Julie’ (unreleased)
‘Sweetness, Sweetness’ (unreleased)
‘A Veil’ (unreleased)
‘Stalactites’ (unreleased)
‘Carte Blanche’ (unreleased)
