PROJECTOR + VINCENT VOCODER VOICE + IDEAL LIVING – GREEN DOOR STORE, BRIGHTON 23.2.24
The Green Door Store was sold out on Friday for Brighton’s grunge trio Projector (stylized as ‘PROJECTOR’). They were playing the second date of their UK and EU tour to promote their debut album, ‘Now When We Talk It’s Violence’. Support came from exciting local art-rock band Ideal Living and Vincent Vocoder Voice for this event from LOUT promotions.
Brighton 3-piece PROJECTOR are Edward Ensbury (vocals/guitar) Lucy Sheehan (vocals/bass), and Cal Marinho (drums). For their live show, they were joined by Ben Hampson providing additional keyboards and guitar.
The band took to the stage to ‘That Don’t Impress Me Much’ by Shania Twain. (Spoiler alert, what was to follow certainly impressed me very much.) PROJECTOR opened with ‘Non’, which had a Nirvana feel to it. Grunge and alt-pop of the 90’s are a big influence on their sound.
Most of their set was taken from their new album, ‘Now When We Talk It’s Violence’, and the next three tracks played came from it. The opening track of the album and second of the set ‘And Now The End’ had a more brutal industrial feel of the post-punk sound of the early 80’s. As a contrast the next song ‘Sunshine’ had a relatively slower start. As Edward started on lead vocals, Lucy was jumping around almost impatiently waiting for her vocal part. The title track of the album ‘Now When We Talk It’s Violence’ had that loud quiet switching reminiscent of Pixies.
Their 2022 single ‘Play Along’ had a moodier feel to it than the brutal frenzy of many of their other songs, with Edward and Lucy sharing the lead vocals.
Back to the new material. After ‘Dubious Goals Committee’, there was a swap in the lead vocal duties with Lucy taking the lead on ‘Chemical’. Lucy took on more of the vocals as the set progressed. This was delivered with far more attack and ferocity than it is on the record. The mosh pit responded accordingly. ‘No Guilt’ had a more rock feel, while ‘Necessary’ started with Lucy’s best bass line of the set, and there were many quality ones to choose from.
‘Big Idea’ had the slowest and quietest intro of the set. Being PROJECTOR it wasn’t going to stay that way for long with bursts of noise throughout the track and clever swapping lead vocals between heavier and relatively softer parts. It was straight in with the next song ‘Breeding Ground’ with Lucy’s screaming vocals. It was the fastest track so far in the set, as the band members fed off each other’s energy, which then fed into the lively mosh pit and the crowd generally. It sounded like there was going to be a quiet end to that song, before a burst of chaos to close the track.
As the band retuned, Lucy whimsically introduced the next song as one she had written “in the bath after the break up with my fourth wife”. It was actually written by Black Francis, being a cover of Pixies’s ‘Tame’, a regular song in Projector’s live shows. Lucy screamed out the lyrics at the very edge of the stage, before heading into the crowd.
The penultimate song was ‘Tastes Like Sarah’ (listed on the setlist as ‘Tits’). It had a great interplay between Lucy and Edward answering and echoing each other’s vocals.
PROJECTOR closed a great set with ‘Zero’ which was a frenzy of grungy noise and screamed vocals throughout. Incidentally, the video for this song was shot in the Green Door Store, watch it HERE.
Lucy again left the stage for the final song of their set to sing and play bass in the mosh pit. Unfortunately, she fell a couple of times, injuring herself quite badly. She had to be helped off stage by keyboard player Ben at the end of the set. Turns out that she actually broke her ankle! Fingers crossed she makes a full recovery and this won’t affect the rest of the tour.
After the band left the stage, the mosh pit continued dancing to the sounds of ABBA’s ‘Dancing Queen’, having thoroughly enjoyed a brilliant show from PROJECTOR. I think the same went for the vast majority of people at the Green Door Store on Friday night. PROJECTOR’s fresh take on the 90’s grunge of Pixies and Nirvana, the alt-rock sounds from the likes of Sonic Youth, tinged with the brutality of early 80’s industrial post-punk, always produces a great live event. This show was up there with their best performances I’ve seen.
Projector:
Edward Ensbury – vocals, guitar
Lucy Sheehan – vocals, bass
Cal Marinho – drums
Ben Hampson – keyboards, guitar, percussion
Projector setlist:
‘Non’ (a 2022 single release)
‘And Now The End’ (from 2024 ‘Now When We Talk It’s Violence’ album)
‘Sunshine’ (from 2024 ‘Now When We Talk It’s Violence’ album)
‘Now When We Talk It’s Violence’ (from 2024 ‘Now When We Talk It’s Violence’ album)
‘Play Along’ (a 2022 single release)
‘Dubious Goals Committee’ (from 2024 ‘Now When We Talk It’s Violence’ album)
‘Chemical’ (from 2024 ‘Now When We Talk It’s Violence’ album)
‘No Guilt’ (from 2024 ‘Now When We Talk It’s Violence’ album)
‘Necessary’ (from 2024 ‘Now When We Talk It’s Violence’ album)
‘Big Idea’ (from 2024 ‘Now When We Talk It’s Violence’ album)
‘Breeding Ground’ (listed on setlist as ‘Butt F*ck’) (from 2024 ‘Now When We Talk It’s Violence’ album)
‘Tame’ (a Pixies cover)
‘Tastes Like Sarah’ (listed on setlist as ‘Tits’) (from 2024 ‘Now When We Talk It’s Violence’ album)
‘Zero’ (from 2021 ‘Zero’ EP)
Opening for PROJECTOR was Ideal Living, an art-rock band from Brighton. The seven-piece band which included a trumpet player and saxophonist, had a change of drummer for Friday’s show with Ellis D (who also plays drums in Trip Westerns) standing in for Bertie Beer.
Ideal Living opened with ‘Come To Me’. Its atmospheric and moody sound set the tone for another impressive performance. Unfortunately, Billy Marsh’s spoken word vocals were a little lost on this track. Thankfully the balance in the sound was corrected later in the set.
Billy’s vocals are a key feature of Ideal Living’s sound. He mixed up the styles between narrative spoken word, forceful lecturing and angry very well. The band had a bigger punchier, more assured sound than when I last saw them at The Folklore Rooms last year (Review HERE). Having both Jamie on trumpet and Freddy on saxophone was a definite plus.
The track ‘March’ took a change mid-song with the drumming becoming more of a marching band sound. This was obviously picked up by Miles on keyboards, who could be seen marching on the spot as he played.
Billy announced the penultimate song ‘Roam’ as his favourite. This slower number was a particular highlight of their set. The acappella section which the whole band then joined in as a round was a stunning vocal harmony.
Before the closing song Billy pointed to his feet saying “Have you seen these shoes? They’re dancing shoes. This is time to put yours on. Dance like it’s your sixth-grade disco.” ‘Down’ was a lively danceable track, even if the Green Door Store floor wasn’t suited to knee slides! It was a fitting close to a quality entertaining set.
You can catch Ideal Living at the Hidden Heard All Dayer at the same venue on Saturday 9 March. Tickets available HERE.
Ideal Living:
Billy Marsh – lead vocals/bass
Austin – guitar/backing vocals
Alyx – bass/backing vocals
Miles – keyboard/backing vocals
Bertie – drums/backing vocals
Jamie – trumpet
Freddy – saxophone
Ellis D – drums (standing in for Bertie Beer)
Ideal Living setlist:
‘Come To Me’
“Untitled”
‘O.F.D.’
‘March’
‘Roam’
‘Down’
Making an extremely rare live appearance was Vincent Vocoder Voice, which is the solo project of Alexander Ross Petersen. For the live show it was a five-piece band consisting of two guitarist, bassist, drummer and keyboards, all dressed in black.
They had a very dark brutal industrial sound, which worked well with the shouted vocals and the use of samples. The sound was matched by the stark stage lighting. From what I could tell it was a set of unreleased material.
As well as the performance on stage, a kaleidoscope avant-garde film of the band was projected onto the other wall of the Green Door Store. With the dark lighting on stage, your eyes were often drawn away from the band to the images on the side wall.
Whilst they were very good, I thought there was more variety in the sets of the other two bands. Saying that, Vincent Vocoder Voice went down very well with the audience. This was particularly the case with Lucy from headliners PROJECTOR, who was buzzing at the front of the crowd. She told me they are her favourite band, which she repeated in her band’s own set when thanking the support acts.
Vincent Vocoder Voice setlist:
‘Coming Soon’
‘Take One For The Team’
‘Love Is The Pearl’
‘The Economy’
‘Harlequins’
‘Actualized Into Slavery’
www.instagram.com/Vincent_Vocoder_Voice
It was another thoroughly entertaining and enjoyable night of live music by exciting local artists at the Green Door Store, with quality energetic performances from all three bands and a great atmosphere that’s so special to grass roots venues.
