LIP FILLER + BACCI POUCH + SLAG + REUBIN X – THE HOPE & RUIN, BRIGHTON 2.4.25
This evening we are back at The Hope & Ruin for this month’s new music installment courtesy of ‘Hidden Herd’ promoters, who certainly knows which of the plethora of quality rising stars to pick. The quartet plying their wares tonight are Lip Filler, Bacci Pouch (stylized in lower case), Slag and Reubin X.
Headlining this evening are Lip Filler who are not to be confused with Lip Critic who were reviewed HERE. With their distinctive blend of caustic indie rock and raucous, noughties-inspired dance-punk, South London based (via Frome in Somerset) quintet Lip Filler are here to shake things up. The exhilarating five-piece, consisting of George Tucker (vocals), Verity Hughes (lead guitar), Jude Schofield (rhythm guitar), Theo Pasmore (bass guitar) and Nate Wicks (drums) signed to Chess Club Records (home to Alfie Templeman, Coach Party and Pixey). They had a breakout 2024, releasing their standout EP ‘witchescrew’ and are building significant momentum. They concluded the year with exhilarating new single, ‘Tricky’, which was produced by St Francis Hotel (Little Simz, Michael Kiwanuka). Lip Filler have previously been supported by NME, Rolling Stone and Clash, and were featured in Dork’s 2024 Hype List. They’ve also been championed by Huw Stephens on BBC Radio 6 Music and received airplay on Radio 1’s Indie Show. Live, Lip Filler have played sold-out shows across the capital, toured with Master Peace and supported The Mysterines.
Tonight they reward us with a nine track selection lasting for 33 minutes and running from 10:07pm to 10:40pm. They are a relatively young band and one of the first things I notice is that Theo (who is standing in front of me) is playing the bass left-handed. They kick off with an unreleased number going by the name of ‘Chic’. It has a Joy Division sounding guitar at the start, before the band morphing into serious Arctic Monkeys territory. Frontman George initially dons the “I can’t be arsed stance” which is so well portrayed by Cal from Ditz, but as the tunes fly by, George’s demeanour dramatically changes, just like the band’s sound has since their inception, which might explain why we don’t get any tunes from 2023’s self-titled EP. ‘Limelite’ from last year’s ‘Witchescrew’ EP is up next and offers the same Arctic Monkeys vibe.
With the arrival of the unreleased ‘Blue’, George’s demeanour has considerably changed and now he is very animated in his vocal delivery and I’m starting to enjoy them more. This is swiftly becoming a solid sound and absorbing set. It’s here that I start to formulate that they might well be destined to be one of the next wave of “press darlings”. You know the ones, The Last Dinner Party, Wet Leg et al. We get the second cut from their ‘Witchescrew’ EP next in the form of ‘It’s Not Deep’, which sees Theo letting loose on his bass and we get that lovely chunky sound and the tune becomes more urgent than those previous and soundwise they are in Ditz territory. This year’s ‘Leeches’ single is their next choice and George is even more animated, plus there’s more chunky bass riffage going down, as well as some noticeable drums and cymbals action as well.
There’s a quieter start on the yet to be recorded ‘Break’ which features Nate rhythmically tapping the rim of the drums with a drumstick. The tune then grows in stature and suddenly there’s a lot going on here and Nate and George are noticeably building up a sweat. George then says “This is a new one” and the quintet perform ‘Soho House’ and dare I say it but George’s vocals have now wandered into Oasis territory and there’s decent harmonies offered here between him and lead guitarist Verity. This is their best tune so far! There’s more harmonies evident on their current ‘Laugh Track’ single and that Arctic Monkeys sounds thankfully seems to be a distant memory. They sign off with last year’s ‘Tricky’ single which starts with strumming guitar and drums combination and they are away with it briefly before the beat becomes less immediate, but then as I anticipated it exploded into action, with Nate clearly feeling every hit of the drums with his entire body. After (for me) an iffy start, the band gave us a solid performance and you can expect to see them playing on larger stages when the word gets out. Suffice to say they went down a storm with tonight’s punters.
Lip Filler:
George Tucker – vocals
Verity Hughes – lead guitar, backing vocals
Jude Schofield – rhythm guitar, backing vocals
Theo Pasmore – bass guitar
Nate Wicks – drums, Roland digital sampling pad
Lip Filler setlist:
‘Chic’ (unreleased)
‘Limelite’ (from 2024 ‘Witchescrew’ EP)
‘Blue’ (unreleased)
‘It’s Not Deep’ (from 2024 ‘Witchescrew’ EP)
‘Leeches’ (a 2025 single)
‘Break’ (unreleased)
‘Soho House’ (unreleased)
‘Laugh Track’ (a 2025 single)
‘Tricky’ (a 2024 single)
Preceding Lip Filler and hailing from Brighton are bacci pouch who are a hotly-tipped three-piece by us and many others. It’s said their sound draws comparisons to The Stone Roses and Buzzcocks, but to be honest I can’t really hear the former, just lashings of the latter, which for yours truly is a truly wonderful thing. To date, the band have released four singles, including the standout 2024 track ‘When The Lights Come On’ and their latest release, ‘It Ain’t Pretty’, which was featured on the ‘Small Pond Presents: Emerging Vol. IV’ compilation album. Their music has received airplay from John Kennedy on Radio X’s X-Posure and Melita Dennett on BBC Music Introducing. Known for delivering catchy riffs, driving rhythms and crowd-igniting performances, their shows have been described as “all hits and no misses” by us at Brighton and Hove News. Live, the trio have shared stages with The Dream Machine, The Skinner Brothers, The Kairos, The Lilacs and Aerial Salad.
Tonight the trio comprising James Neighbour (vocals, guitar), Sam Raymer (bass) and Charlie Heasman (drums) also perform nine tunes for us and this lasts 30 minutes from 9:18pm to 9:48pm. They begin with their warmup ‘Intro’ instrumental tune, which simply serves as just that and already that wonderful heyday Buzzcocks combined guitar and drums sound is evident. They launch into the unreleased ‘She Said’ which really does offer up a carbon copy of Pete Shelley’s (RIP) trademark nasally whiny delivery, along with echoey guitar, rumbly bass and drums. Many might think it sacrilege for a young punk rock band to recreate Fatboy Slim’s 1998 timeless club anthem ‘The Rockafeller Skank’, especially as the lads weren’t even around then, but this trio grab the song and make it their own! They’ve even tweaked the title and theirs is ‘The Rockafeller Skank’ and it’s sooo right! My friend also noted a similarity in the sound to Siouxsie and the Banshees ‘Love In A Void’, which I concurred with and hadn’t actually noticed before.
The as yet to be recorded ‘Running Around’ is the lads next selection and the intro has that Skids guitar sound akin to ‘Into The Valley’ and then it’s that Pete Shelley frailty vocal sound that follows on. The halfway mark is announced with the arrival of 2023’s ‘Learn To Love’ single which was their debut release. This has the sound of being a timeless classic that could have easily have been part of that famed New Hormones ‘Spiral Scratch’ EP. There’s a twangy bass intro to ‘It Ain’t Pretty’ which is the tune they donated to last year’s ‘Small Pond Presents: Emerging Vol. IV’ compilation album. This track oozes and emulates that wonderful 1978 time when Belfast’s ‘Good Vibrations’ record label was dropping classic after classic…Rudi ‘Big Time’, The Outcasts ‘Justa Nother Teenage Rebel’, The Moondogs ‘She’s Nineteen’ and believe it or not The Undertones ‘Teenage Kicks’.
The unreleased ‘Someone Else’s Clothes’ is announced by James as the next tune and this has a slowish intro (as compared to their previous songs) before bursting into a combined The Wedding Present and Half Man Half Biscuit sound. This is a more tender number and yet tonight’s delivery was in all honesty a tad more rough and ready than normal. Was it because their mates weren’t in attendance this evening shouting “Back-Key-Pouch” or could it be an instrument tuning situation, I’ll go with the latter. 2024’s ‘Normal People’ was their penultimate selection and this too has a slow start that explodes into action. This could have easily been one of those ‘Good Vibrations’ releases. It’s a corker and for me the choice cut of the set. They signed off with another single from last year, this time it’s ‘When The Lights Come On’, which offers more wonderful twanginess and could have been another ‘Good Vibrations ‘single. I love Bacci Pouch, but if I’m being totally honest, their usual “A+” performance wasn’t achieved tonight, it was more a “B” instead as on a few tunes they were off it a bit, which I think they knew. Despite these shortcomings they were still act of the night for yours truly.
Bacci Pouch:
James Neighbour – vocals, guitar
Sam Raymer – bass guitar
Charlie Heasman – drums
Bacci Pouch setlist:
‘Intro’ (unreleased)
‘She Said’ (unreleased)
‘The Rockafeller Skank’ (Fatboy Slim cover)
‘Running Around’ (unreleased)
‘Learn To Love’ (a 2023 single)
‘It Ain’t Pretty’ (from 2024 ‘Small Pond Presents: Emerging Vol. IV’ compilation album)
‘Someone Else’s Clothes’ (unreleased)
‘Normal People’ (a 2024 single)
‘When The Lights Come On’ (a 2024 single)
Before Bacci Pouch we had the highly recommended relatively new Brighton based quintet going by the name of Slag. The members are Amelie (vocals and guitar), Dan (guitar), Seb (keys), Luke (drums) and Freya (bass) and they create a shapeshifting blend of indie-pop, math-rock, and post-punk. It has already been said that Slag are a dynamic new force in the city’s thriving music scene. Back in September, the band unveiled their hook-loaded debut single, ‘Ripped’, accompanied by a playful workout video, which firmly established them as ones-to-watch. Already hyped for their exhilarating live shows, Slag recently supported Cordelia Gartside and performed alongside Man/Woman/Chainsaw, Flip Top Head and Goodbye at Green Door Store’s 14th Birthday Party. After this evening they’ll be appearing at this year’s ‘Homegrown Festival’, joining a stacked lineup featuring Brighton heavyweights like ARXX, Projector, Congratulations and ĠENN, plus today they were also one of the newly announced 175+ acts appearing at this year’s ‘Great Escape’, which is a rubber-stamp of how far they have already come in such a short space of time!
This evening Slag played eight tunes for us across their 31 minute set which ran from 8:31pm to 9:02pm. They begin with the unreleased ‘There There’ which features some great plinking guitar work from Dan and already it’s evident that this band are well in tune with each other. This song, like a majority of this evening’s offerings from Slag, varies its beats and tempos throughout and they certainly keep you on your toes as to where the indie tracks will be going next. ‘Private Gyno’ being a prime example of this as it initially seems as though it’s a dreamy lazy summer afternoon affair with Amelie’s vocals and guitar at the forefront of this and then the track becomes heavy, as if The Sundays had just discovered grunge. Amelie then informs us “This one’s really new” and they set about playing ‘Losing’ the third unreleased tune in a row. It’s here that we get our first real taste of how powerful Amelie’s voicebox can be.
Track four is ‘Still Here’ which features some some twangy guitar sounds and it could almost have been penned as an Orange Juice tune, but it builds from here and we get an altogether more urgent vocal delivery and sound. There’s a quiet start to ‘Dan’s Song’ which not surprisingly features Dan on his guitar accompanied by Amelie’s vocals which are delivered with true feeling and is concluded with some guitar shaking from Dan. After this Amelie tells us that “We released this single last year” and they set about performing ‘Ripped’. There’s a hint of heavy Cocteau Twins and The Sundays with this one, but somehow it’s more intense. Their penultimate selection is their latest ‘Heaven’ single which begins with a brief solo vocal from Amelie and then Luke joins her on his drumkit. Amelie’s vocals on this track sound different from those on any other song tonight and are comparable to Russel Mael from Sparks. The tune then explodes into action, only to slow down again and then go back up again with more Mael style vocals. They leave us with the unreleased ‘Legs’ where Amelie’s vocals are now sounding not far off Chrissie Hynde’s, and come to think of it, some of the earlier tunes had the same vocal sound, but not the more gravelly Hynde notes though. This is another track that changes in intensity. Here is a band I would expect to be hearing much more of in the not too distant future.
Slag:
Amelie – vocals and guitar
Dan – guitar
Seb – keys, backing vocals
Luke – drums
Freya – bass, backing vocals
Slag setlist:
‘There There’ (unreleased)
‘Private Gyno’ (unreleased)
‘Losing’ (unreleased)
‘Still Here’ (unreleased)
‘Dan’s Song’ (unreleased)
‘Ripped’ (a 2024 single)
‘Heaven’ (a 2025 single)
‘Legs’ (unreleased)
The opener for this evening was Reubin X who has replaced Brighton-based trio Friktion on the bill which was originally announced at the beginning of the year. Reubin X is a boundary-pushing British artist from the south coast who blends rock, rap and metal to forge a distinctive, high-energy sound. Formerly the bassist of enigmatic math-rock outfit cowboyy – who built an enviable word-of-mouth buzz and featured in the NME 100 in 2023 – Reubin X is now making waves with his solo project. Following his debut extended EP/mini-album, ‘REVOLUTION X’, which was written when he was just 17, his latest single, ‘The Activist’, showcases his knack for politically charged lyrics and raw intensity, channeling the spirit of Bad Brains and recalling contemporaries like Wu-Lu. Known for his exhilarating live show, Reubin X is set to take the stage at this year’s ‘Wanderlust Festival’ in Southampton alongside English Teacher, Personal Trainer, KEG and more.
This evening vocalist Reubin is joined by a trio of chums who are Henry on guitar, Rhys on drums and Ethan on bass. They now also call on the services of a keyboardist, but sadly they aren’t available tonight and so as a result, we get a truncated handful of tunes that only lasts a mere 15 minutes, from 7:47pm to 8:02pm. Reubin informs us that this is his first gig in Brighton as a solo artist and his first in two years. They kickoff with the first of three cuts in the set from his ‘Revolution X’ mini-album, this being ‘Intifada’ which is delivered in a rappy punk style with echoey guitar, rumbley bass and solid drums. It certainly has a nod to Rage Against The Machine, as does the next number, ‘Pigs’ from the same release.
Cut three is the unreleased new track ‘Equilibrium’ and Rhys’ drumming reminds me of the Dead Kennedys sound from back in the day. The penultimate song is last year’s ‘The Activist’ single which certainly witnessed a number of punters’ heads nicely bobbing along to the beat. There’ no moshing or circle pits tonight for any of the bands, but I guess this is the closest that any of the artists were to get to that. It too sounds not unlike Rage Against The Machine. They sign off with the initially slower chugging ‘NNZ (Welcome To The City)’ from 2023’s ‘Revolution X’ mini-album, but then partway through the quartet really let rip both verbally and musically. The Reubin X sound was to be honest not of great interest to me, but I could see that they were giving it their all and so respect them for that.
Reubin X:
Reubin – vocals
Henry – guitar
Rhys – drums
Ethan – bass
Reubin X setlist:
‘Intifada’ (from 2023 ‘Revolution X’ mini-album)
‘Pigs’ (from 2023 ‘Revolution X’ mini-album)
‘Equilibrium’ (unreleased)
‘The Activist’ (a 2024 single)
‘NNZ (Welcome To The City)’ (from 2023 ‘Revolution X’ mini-album)
