PARKER FANS + WEAKDAY – THE HOPE & RUIN, BRIGHTON 18.2.24
It’s a Sunday night, what do you do when you’ve already been out to gigs on Friday and Saturday, well you go out for another one don’t you, why break a habit. And what could be better and more enticing when The Hope & Ruin and legendary promoter Love Thy Neighbour are putting on two bands for free. In fact The Hope & Ruin had live music seeping out of the brickwork on this Sunday night as the upstairs venue was playing host to the sold out trio of bands Michael Cera Palin, I Feel Fine and Silktape.
Now, just because it was free in no way meant the quality of what I was about to see in the bar area downstairs was going to be anything less than brilliant, this was going to be an evening of two very different bands both playing excellent music.
I arrived just before 7pm with the hope of getting a seat, but the joint was bustling with plenty of food and drink orders buzzing about around me, so I took up station at the edge of the bar and watched the bands both go through the soundcheck, which gave me a slight clue to what I may be hearing over the coming evening.
Parker Fans are an indie pop trio from Amsterdam, The Netherlands, they are Kick Kluiving (also in Teddy’s Hit and former drummer of Personal Trainer), and Sem Egter van Wissekerke, (also the bass player for Bob uit Zuid) and finally new to the band Tomas (Possibly Thomas, sorry I am unsure of the spelling) on keyboards and Synthesiser. What can I say about their style of music, it is fun, pulsing bass guitar, fun, drum beats and samples, fun, wicked synthesizer, and oh did I mention fun!
At 8:50pm proceedings began as Kick grabbed the microphone and bellowed “Hello Brighton, we are Parker Fans, we are from Amsterdam and we are here now, this is a song”. The song was actually called ‘Sweat’, Sem straight away bouncing with his Hagstrom bass guitar, Kick firing up the drum machine, the vocal style is closer to rap than singing I would say for this one. A great lively opener and set the pace for the rest of the 40 minute set.
Hitting a button on his AKAI drum machine/beat box, the beat changed to a nice fat slow sliding beat for ‘Bricks’, the lead song from their 2023 ‘Parker Fans’ EP.
“Thanks, this next song is called ‘Student Room’, it is about a student room, hey this is dance music, you can all come a bit forward if you want to” enticed Kick to the crowd. Everyone inched forward a few paces, I figured why not move right up to the front, I was dancing anyhow so let’s get down as we mean to go. There was a bit more of a laid back beat to this one with Tomas keeping those cool Korg and funky keyboard sounds going.
I’ll give it to Kick, he really is an entertaining frontman, he does not stay still, always moving, dancing, waving his hands, running his hands through his hair, his sweat shirt is already off, I think back to when I saw Personal Trainer last year and clothes steadily came off throughout that set, is it going to be the same tonight with this band?
“Merci beaucoup, merci beaucoup, thank you, we are from Amsterdam, do you know Amsterdam?” quizzed Kick to the crowd, some yey’s came from the crowd and a no from someone near me, “ah okay then” dismissed Kick moving swiftly to introducing the band “This is Sem on bass guitar and this is Tomas on keys”. Tomas replied in a slow muffled tone “hello, thank you” prompting a huge laugh, “He is very shy” continued Kick “he looks like a bit like Adam Driver…doesn’t he? Right this next song is called ‘Cleaning Disorder’ and it’s about cleaning disorder”. This one was all about the strong bass line and the cool keyboard tune over the far quieter beats, it did start with Kick very softly singing, but in parts he would descend into some screams and shouts. Kick had very much warmed up now with his dancing and stage movements. I was loving it, it was just pure fun and silliness, you had to be there really to appreciate the humour in it all, they are clearly a band that like to smile and have fun while playing, which seeps out and gets you in the crowd.
“We are Parker Fans from Amsterdam, do you like Amsterdam?” “Yes”, the crowd replied “we do too”. “We really miss it” continued Kick, “we are going back to Amsterdam tomorrow” holding the microphone to a giggling Sem he asked “what do you miss about Amsterdam Sem?” to which Sem replied laughing “The canals” prompting much laughter from the crowd and Sem. Switching to sales mode, Kick pointed over at a t-shirt hanging on the wall behind the mixing desk. “We have some shirts, I made them myself, they are over there, they are only like £15……or £10” someone in the crowd said “you have not decided?”, Kick while ruffling his hair said yeah, maybe £5, I shouted I’ll buy one, “nice” replied Kick, “right this one is called ‘Waju’, it is a drum and bass classic”. And that it was, the band echoing the chorus “Waju, waju, waju, waju”. The band were very relaxed and having lots of fun, Sem was introduced again twice more during the song, prompting more cheers, Tomas was pulling out some great sounds from the Korg synth whilst Kick was running on the spot.
“Thank you, come a little more closer to me please” beckoned Kick, everyone took another few steps towards the front as a fine solid drum beat kicked in for ‘Skincare’. Lyrically a great fun tune, Kick now had his t-shirt half over his head and had his belt undone as his amusing stage antics continued, as the song finished he pulled the t-shirt back on apologising “Sorry, I’m so drunk”, mumbling “sorry about this” everyone laughed, “this is another song, hit it Tomas”, he then turned round and introduced Tomas again “This is Tomas, this is his third show with us and he is doing a really good job right”, everyone including the band were laughing, “he is like Adam Driver right?”. I honestly don’t know if this was part of the act or if Kick really was perhaps a little tipsy, but as the next song ‘Bark’ started up, he pulled off his shoes and threw them to the back, he then came out into the crowd and danced with a couple of us, myself included, whilst singing.
“Thank you, we have two more, we are Parker Fans from Amsterdam, I used to bring the house down!” stated Kick, and that was the next song “I Used To Bring The House Down”, this one had a massive 80s vibe about it and I loved it.
Kicks t-shirt finally came off, the drum and bass rhythm kicked in for ‘TAXI’, Sem’s unwavering bass continued to pulse those funky tunes, more catchy lyrics and melodies came, a great song to finish the evening on.
True to my word I did buy a t-shirt, they were all unique and as was mentioned in the show the prices seemed rather undecided as I handed over £15 for the next person to be charged just a fiver! Hey, I don’t mind, I like the thought the money was going directly to him and the band, the gig was free after all and I like to show good support for the artists, touring is no cheap thing, plus I’ve got a cool one off unique t-shirt which I’ll proudly wear next time they play.
Kick kindly wrote out the setlist for me whilst I chatted with him afterwards. This show was part of a 3 date UK tour, taking in Southampton, London and finally Brighton. I asked if they might be coming back soon, he said there was something in May, I quizzed “The Great Escape?” he seemed to think it was that, so here’s hoping it is, I promised I’d be there. In terms of music releases, he said they are hoping to have the album they are working on out in January 2025, so it’s a while yet, but I hope we get to see them over here in the UK for more gigs in the meantime.
By the end of the gig most of those at the front of the crowd were dancing about. The music was infectious and just pure fun, Kicks humour and the craziness of it all really made Sunday night a joyous occasion. I loved all those various beats getting the groove going, anyone that knows me, will know I love a good bass line and we had that all night, the magic of the Korg Synth was the icing on the cake. I will happily admit I am a Parker Fan fan and have the T-shirt to prove it.
Parker Fans:
Kick Kluiving – vocals, beats
Sem – bass guitar
Tomas – keys, Korg synth
Parker Fans setlist:
‘Sweat’
‘Bricks’ (from the 2023 ‘Parker Fans’ EP)
‘Student Room’
‘Cleaning Disorder’
‘Waju’
‘Skincare’
‘Bark’
‘I Used To Bring The House Down’
‘TAXI’
First up were Weakday, now they were a new one on me, no matter how hard I had trawled the internet in advance for anything on them, who are they? What sort of music do they play? All I could find was that they were “a new Brighton Project from Henry Wood”. Now ‘new’ is very much the operative word here, as tonight, literally was their first ever gig, so what treats awaited us.
The band arrived through the doors with all of their kit during Parker Fans soundcheck, so things were rapidly set up and soundchecked, without any further ado at 8pm they went straight in with the first song ‘Vienna’, this was a real solid opener of the set, the drums, the bass, the blend of all those guitars and Henry also on his Roland synth whilst singing made a perfect mix.
A quick “Thank you” from Henry to the descent sized crowd that had now formed up, the band moved onto their next song ‘It’s Not A Case’, a far slower tune than ‘Vienna’, but one that slowly built up and up to a proper loud finish with Henry shouting those lyrics “I try to communicate”.
Henry thanked the crowd again “We are Weakday, this is our first ever gig, thanks for coming down” and went into the next song ‘Second One’, again, it was a slow song, but one that had a shoegaze feel to it. “That song was called ‘Second One’, which we ironically played third, you’ve got to have a gimmick in there somewhere” joked Henry.
Thanking Love Thy Neighbour and Parker Fans, next up was ‘One To Call’ a fine frantic track with plenty of guitar, with the volumes lowering from the rest of the band, when Henry sang, this one really got my foot stomping along.
Henry strapped on his guitar, and after a bit of tuning up, the next song was ‘Called Her Up On Tuesday’, a good head-nodder of a song.
This is going to the final song of the night, it’s out on the 28th of this month (February) and it’s called ‘Drowning’, again this was another strong track, great powerful drums throughout, I could just picture this one getting played out in a bigger venue with a crowd all bouncing around, a belter of a song.
There were no stage theatrics, the band let the music do the talking here tonight and excuse the language but they were bloody good, there is no way you would have known this was their first gig had it not been mentioned. Whilst it was just a 20 minute set, they were incredibly tight and sounded utterly great. Talking with Henry afterwards, he said that he and drummer Connor used to play in a band previously but it broke up about a year ago, since then he’d spent time writing songs and a new band have come together, they had earlier that day had a good solid three and a half hour rehearsal to make sure they were match fit for this evening.
I can only see them rising and rising as they start to get more notice, fingers crossed we get to see them some more in Brighton soon. In terms of upcoming shows, there may be a gig over in Portsmouth at the Staggeringly Good Brewery in March, but that is still to be confirmed, it is worth checking out their Instagram and keeping tabs on their movements for any upcoming shows.
Weakday:
Henry Wood – vocals
Frazer – rhythm guitar
Jamie – lead guitar
Nathan – bass guitar
Connor – drums
Weakday setlist:
‘Vienna’
‘It’s Not A Case’
‘Second One’
‘One To Call’
‘Called Her Up On Tuesday’
‘Drowning’
www.instagram.com/weakdayweakday
