LIME GARDEN + HOTWAX + LONNIE GUNN + MAGDA (1999) – GREEN DOOR STORE, (OUTSIDE), BRIGHTON 19.4.26
Brighton has always been considered an unpredictable, bohemian place; in fact, it’s become synonymous with the bizarre and esoteric. In the last twenty years, the unpredictability has ramped up in both beautiful and brutal ways — while we gained The Great Escape in 2006, we’ve lost countless venues to landlords and nightclubs. However, we have gained one staple amidst this chaos: Green Door Store.
Since 2011, Green Door has established itself as a Brighton institution for its commitment to grassroots talent, both local and global. Since its inception, household names such as Sam Fender, Mac DeMarco and The 1975 have stepped onto its stage before their world-conquering festival headlines. It is not only invaluable as the first stop on many artists’ first proper tours, but as a springboard for local talent to play some of their earliest shows.
Today is a free-to-enter celebration of a vital space, with four local acts that have passed through its hallowed, shabby-chic doors. The acts taking to the stage are Magda (1999), Lonnie Gunn, HotWax, and Lime Garden in what feels like a mini Homegrown Festival only a week later: safe to say we’re being spoiled. However, there is a twist: for the first time, the entire show is held outside under the Trafalgar Arches — marking Brighton’s first outdoor show of the year, and the first show to ever be held outside this space!
First up is Magda (1999) with very little on streaming platforms and a Spotify bio that repeats their own name, they’re a mysterious bunch. Comprised of Max Lambert (vocals), Jack Lymer (guitar), Dylan Watts (synth), Kamil Gacikowski (bass), and Szymon Zdunek (drums), they cut an interesting presence throughout.
Opener ‘Hole Punched In Cloud’ is all Pixies loud-quiet dynamics, filtered through The Orielles; ocean-esque Korg synths are buried beneath slicing guitars while frontman Max Lambert rambles like a ‘For The First Time’ era Isaac Wood.
The rest of their set leans heavily on loud-quiet dynamics, with frontman Max Lambert’s presence landing as awkward yet still earning laughs. It’s unclear whether it’s a persona or genuine discomfort. After the loud/quiet lackadaisicalness of ‘Dyl Slam’ and the spiky-guitar shoutiness of ‘Sick With It’ – a track where Lambert shouts so incoherently he sounds like an off-topic street preacher – humour shines through. “We are Magda, thanks for coming to watch us… It’s really cool. Megatron stage, shout out the scaffolders.”
‘Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes’ bursts in immediately with jolting guitars and barked vocals, while ‘In The Wind’ is a track introduced twice due to how long Jack Lymer takes to retune his guitar. It ultimately falls close to Slint’s intricate sparsity, filtered through The Orielles’ commitment to overpowering the Korg in the mix.
Throughout, Lambert’s vocals are buried so deep in the mix – like you’re hearing them from another room. ‘Crickets’ is the closest they come to discernibility; it’s a jump-scaring space-age post-punk track with a rip-roaring conclusion.
Penultimate track ‘Norilsk’ is heavy on the cymbals and fuzzed-up guitars, jolting between indie textures and Slint sparsity. “Thank you for having us. Have a nice life”, from Lambert indicates the end, before the final of their only two released songs, which is given airtime: ‘Not That Bad.’ Vocals are once again discernible within a track that feels indebted to ‘Beam/S’, with delicate synths cresting on a song that wants to scream but has no mouth.
While the earliest slot of the day is challenging, Magda (1999)’s mysterious outfit appeals to a mixed-age crowd, highlighting Brighton’s grassroots scene and rewarding the patience of those who have shown up early.
Magda (1999):
Max Lambert – vocal
Jack Lymer – guitar
Dylan Watts – synth
Kamil Gacikowski – bass
Szymon Zdunek – drums
Magda (1999) setlist:
‘Hole Punched In Cloud’ (from 2024 ‘Hole Punched In Cloud’ EP)
‘Dyl Slam’ (unreleased)
‘Sick With It’ (unreleased)
‘Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes’ (unreleased)
‘In The Wind’ (unreleased)
‘Crickets’ (unreleased)
‘Norilsk’ (unreleased)
‘It’s Not That Bad’ (a 2026 single)
www.instagram.com/magda1999___
Next up is New Jersey-born, Brighton-adopted Lonnie Gunn, fresh from supporting Sonic Youth legend Kim Gordon at O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire. Her self-described “lesbian fembot bubblegrunge” melts Courtney Love confessionalism with glitchy elements, which falls close to a stuttering cyber-Blondshell with fuzzed out guitars.
With a vintage-looking microphone installed, it’s unclear how Lonnie’s set will utilize this. Opener ‘Lucky Girl’ is all sapphic grunge but marred by deafening audio feedback; entirely a sound issue, not a band one. “Hi, we’re Lonnie Gunn! There are so many of you all of a sudden. Could you come closer, please,” Gunn requests, granting permission for a growing crowd to shuffle slightly further forward for the next track ‘Kiss You.’ Sapphic pop-grunge continues with a yearning anthem for the ages, as Lonnie herself seems like a woman possessed fronting a band with so much plaid and flannel it’s like they’ve raided 1994 Seattle.
‘Dog In A Hot Car’ is a yearning emotional outburst set to music, with a heavily modulated guitar squealing in pain alongside Gunn’s yelping of “I think my body is evil”. After applause, Gunn declares, “I love Green Door, and I’m really happy to be here” to introduce the fuzzed-out robo-grunge of ‘Love Bite,’ a track with absolutely clattering drums from Esme Wright.
“This next song is called ‘Good Girls Go To Heaven’… Don’t worry, I won’t ask you to sing along” introduces Gunn’s latest release. This track steers away from the Blondshell comparisons, with slightly distorted elements that occasionally veer into incendiary fuzz, as a pitiful smoke machine attempts to obscure the stage.
“We have two songs left. Booo, I know!” Gunn states before unreleased ‘I Miss Everything.’ Gunn sporadically utilises a harmonica over a high-pitched, earworm of a vibrato-laden riff, with the line “somebody pinch me” remaining prominent. Closer ‘Ex GF’ is a signature track in the making, with glitched-out intros giving way to outright downstroked grunge; the vintage mic brought in stage finally has uses for a chorus of “I don’t want to be your ex girlfriend anymore”, lending an echoed, down-the-landline effect as Gunn falls to her knees.
With a setlist largely the same as her support slot with Kim Gordon, Gunn proves her Green-Door-crafted bubblegrunge can land as well in O2 venues as smoking areas of clubs. Her 90s revivalism, unabashed yearning, and stage presence will carry her far and land well with a still-growing all-gender, all-age crowd.
Lonnie Gunn:
Lonnie Gunn – vocals
Alice Oliphant – lead guitar
Esme Wright – drums
Morgan Pile – Rhythm Guitar
Lauren Maddison – bass
Lonnie Gunn setlist:
‘Lucky Girl’ (a 2025 single)
‘Kiss You’ (a 2024 single)
‘Dog In A Hot Car’ (a 2024 single)
‘Lovebite’ (a 2025 single)
‘I Miss Everything’ (unreleased)
‘EX GF’ (a 2025 single)
Between sets, the infamous party4u DJs tease upcoming acts; tracks from HotWax and Lime Garden are sandwiched between LCD Soundsystem and Fcukers. The Brighton-centric indie sleaze feels like a mini ‘I fcking h8 clubbing’ between sets before HotWax takes the stage.
As the final act before Lime Garden, the Brighton-adopted but Hastings-formed trio of HotWax have a monumental task. The three-piece, comprised of Talulah Sim-Savage (vocals, guitar), Lola Sam (bass) and Alfie Sayers (drums), feel like Yeah Yeah Yeahs at their most punk. Their sound is ripped straight out of New York, no meat, just fast and loud tracks never overstaying their welcome, built on sweaty nights across their recent toilet tour of Europe.
A dedicated front few rows of messy hairs and Doc Martens are bundled as HotWax land on stage to cacophonous feedback, before launching straight into the meat-and-potatoes punk of opening track ‘Hard Goodbye.’ Evidently cramming as much as possible into a truncated set, the wailing guitar and wobbled bass meet pummeling drums in the seamlessly segued ‘Tell Me Everything’s Alright.’
After resounding with an Ellie Rowsell-esque shriek in ‘Strange To Be Here’, there is finally a break with Sim-Savage laughing “Alfie, wait a second… I’m so out of tune.’ ‘Is anyone excited for Lime Garden? If anyone wants to move around a bit, now is the time,” Lola Sam announces before unreleased track ‘Lie There’ – the first of 4 new tracks – is aired.
‘Change My Name’ is the next, a thunderous burst of nervous energy where everyone is playing at breakneck speeds. “We’ve been back in Hastings… we wrote this one last week,” Sim-Savage says before launching into ‘Good Luck’ – a slightly wonkier groove that breaks into deafening downstrums later than the fast and loud tracks we’re accustomed to.
“As you guys didn’t buy a ticket, we’re selling merch,” Sam jokes before another paint-by-numbers wallop of a track. The middle section of the set is largely composed of workshopping new material that sounds practically the same as everything that’s come before it.
“This is a song we played two seconds that way” [pointing toward indoor stage], as ‘Treasure’ is burnt through; all ringing guitar notes, frantic bass with Sam joining vocals for a crazed conclusion where Sim-Savage scales the fretboard.
In a true fake-out moment, Sim Savage teases an exit with “Thank you, Brighton! We’re playing in a smoking area.” Already slightly over their allotted time, the band seemingly decides ‘in for a penny out for a pound’ as they play for an additional 15. In this run, ‘Chip My Teeth For You’ starts with stop/start slow before a frenzied, angular conclusion with Sim-Savage snarling, “I’ll chip my teeth for you.” Follower ‘One More Reason’ has a bassline suspiciously close to ‘Block Rockin’ Beats’ paired with shrieking guitars and screams of “say it to my face.”
Closer ‘Rip It Out’, its music video filmed here at Green Door, is a fittingly furious conclusion. It starts slow and feedback-laden, before driving into fast-and-loud dynamics expected for an explosive catharsis.
While consistently trying to stoke mosh pits, only a small section of the crowd obliges by pogoing, despite the music being more than energetic enough to prompt a response. HotWax is a suitably thrashing outfit that remarkably doesn’t get the crowd moving as much as the songs suggest they should. Whether this is due to airing a large number of unfamiliar tracks or simply a crowd conserving their energy, Lime Garden await.
HotWax:
Tallulah Sim-Savage – vocals, guitar
Lola Sam – bass
Alfie Sayers – drums
HotWax setlist:
‘Hard Goodbye’ (from 2025 ‘Hot Shock’ album)
‘Tell Me Everything’s Alright’ (a 2025 single)
‘Strange To Be Here’ (from 2025 ‘Hot Shock’ album)
‘Lie There’ (unreleased)
‘Change My Name’ (unreleased)
‘Good Luck’ (unreleased)
‘Paint It Nice’ (unreleased)
‘Drop’ (a 2023 single)
‘Treasure’ (a 2023 single)
‘Shed’ (unreleased)
‘Chip My Teeth For You’ (from 2025 ‘Hot Shock’ album)
‘One More Reason’ (from 2025 ‘Hot Shock’ album)
‘Rip It Out’ (a 2023 single)
As Brighton staples and multiple-time Green Door Store headliners, Lime Garden are finally up; their self-described “wonk pop” is pure power-pop revivalism, with subtle post-punk and dance influences. The four-piece of Chloe Howard (vocals, guitar), Annabel Whittle (drums), Leila Deeley (guitar), and Tippi Morgan (bass) feel like growing up with Radio 1 but discovering Interpol, marrying each disparate influence together effervescently.
Arriving on stage laughing to ‘Rack City’ by Tyga, a tone is immediately set for the night. However, the electronic pulses of opener ‘Body’ have other plans, with its tale of stranger-induced body dysmorphia instantly shattering the irony, angular guitar lines à la Bloc Party sounding like they’ve been filtered through the dancefloor.
“Let’s have some energy, I know it’s a Sunday,” frontwoman Chloe Howard announces before launching into ‘23.’ A favourite of the band, it gets people present and shoes shuffling with Deeley’s funky, slicing riff and Happy Mondays-esque bassline despite the decimated confidence of its lyrics.
The joy in this space is resoundingly infectious, almost emphatically urged in by alcohol as Howard asks, “How has everyone’s day been? We’re all actually quite drunk.” Introducing the pulsating wonkiness of ‘I Want To Be You,’ Howard states, “This one is about wanting to be a male in one of the many average indie bands plaguing this country.”
A highlight tonight is Howard’s drunken candour between tracks: “This one goes out to a very specific member of the audience who says the album is about them… the only song on the album about you is this one” Howard announces to widespread whoops and wide-mouthed shock before launching into ‘Cross My Heart.’ Whilst hugely catchy, breakneck wonk-pop, Howard seems to be staring someone in the crowd down in her very own ‘Silver Springs’ moment.
“This next one is about the dating app Hinge… I’ll say no more on that”, Howard teases as Deeley delays the start of ‘Downtown Lover’, retuning her guitar – “this feels like practice” Chloe quips. ‘Always Talking About You’ maintains the tambourine as a fixture, with Howard cutting a distinctly cooler, less try-hard Liam Gallagher-type presence.
“It’s time to move a bit more” introduces the punchy ‘Lifestyle.’ Deeley’s shrieking tone, paired with frenzied drums and a grooving bass, delivers a message about perceived lifestyles and stokes the first mosh of the night. “We’ve just come off a week-long tour for our album, and it did better than we thought it would. We’re currently the only girl band in the entire top 100” is met with cheers from a crowd utterly captivated, and ready to jump around.
‘Downtown Lover’ is introduced as a song about “being a f*ck boy.” Missing the ‘oo-oo-oohs’ of the recorded version, it lands as a punchy, slacker-rocked-up Peter, Bjorn and John (close to Westside Cowboy’s recent cover of theirs) that earns sing-alongs.
“We dedicate this one to Green Door. Thank you for employing Leila,” Howard states to precede debut album cut ‘Love Song.’ The vibrant guitars and urgent snare-heavy drums get everyone jumping, with the crowd so loud singing “as I walk/ as I bleed/ I wanna take you everywhere with me”.
‘All Bad Parts’ is introduced as about beer, with choppy, sharp guitar lines punctuating a gurgled bass effect and a resounding rhythm section, as Howard sounds shockingly close to Courtney Barnett’s conversational tone, with lyrics of “do I even like these mates.” While parting with the mic stand to move around the stage, mosh pits, including members of Magda (1999) and Lonnie Gunn, are stoked, with a crowd so genuinely happy you’d forget it was a Sunday, not a Friday.
The through line across tonight is gratitude, especially for Green Door Store as a venue; the krautrock ticking of ‘Clockwork’ announces its debut as cigarette smoke blends with the smell of Weirdough pizza.
“We’ve got one more song for you” is met with disappointed groans from an enthralled audience. Recent album closer ‘Maybe Not Tonight’ looms in with high-pitched honking, falling somewhere close to the sound of being truly hammered, waking up after the afters to an elephant alarm clock. The track is encapsulating ‘wonk-pop’ as lyrics of “I wanna walk around and not compare myself to all my friends” precedes a large circle pit opening – one where an ‘iflippingluvbrighton’ microphone appears out of nowhere to capture people’s last words.
“Thank you, Green Door, we’ll see you next time” is met with defiant chants of “one more song” that play their part in the adult peekaboo of an encore. Unsurprisingly, Lime Garden re-enter the stage after 30 seconds, quipping “this wasn’t planned obviously… we’re gonna do a cover now” – launching into their take on New Order’s ‘Age Of Consent.’ On a track living and dying on its metronomic rhythm section, Tippi Morgan and Annabel Whittle are remarkable as Howard seemingly raises the song’s key to suit her vocal range. While the rhythm section remains the same, the track is more overtly rock than its original, with the crowd clapping in unison.
Leaving the stage with “thank you so much, we’ll be selling merch” at bang on 9, it’s safe to say Green Door Store’s first outdoor event is a riotous success! For a Sunday evening, people showed up, danced, drank, and jumped around to four of the best bands the city has to offer, most of which deserve to be known far beyond the city’s confines. With a set leaning on their recent album, Lime Garden have laid a claim to be not just Brighton’s best band, but one of the country’s most joyous live acts in their victory lap for ‘Maybe Not Tonight.’ As the crowd dances to ‘Bad Girls’ by M.I.A, there’s a realization you can’t ask for much more out of the first outdoor event of the year; today has been a showcase of everything our music scene does best, and a precursor to The Great Escape. Long live Green Door Store!
Lime Garden:
Chloe Howard – vocals, guitar
Annabel Whittle – drums
Leila Deeley – guitar
Tippi Morgan – bass
Lime Garden setlist:
‘Body’ (from 2026 ‘Maybe Not Tonight’ album)
‘23’ (from 2026 ‘Maybe Not Tonight’ album)
‘I Want To Be You’ (from 2024 ‘One More Thing’ album)
‘Cross My Heart’ (from 2026 ‘Maybe Not Tonight’ album)
‘Always Talking About You’ (from 2026 ‘Maybe Not Tonight’ album)
‘Lifestyle’ (from 2026 ‘Maybe Not Tonight’ album)
‘Downtown Lover’ (from 2026 ‘Maybe Not Tonight’ album)
‘Love Song’ (from 2024 ‘One More Thing’ album)
‘All Bad Parts’ (from 2026 ‘Maybe Not Tonight’ album)
‘Clockwork’ (a 2021 Single)
‘Maybe Not Tonight’ (from 2026 ‘Maybe Not Tonight’ album)
(encore)
‘Age Of Consent’ (New Order cover)
