DRINK THE SEA – CHALK, BRIGHTON 3.10.26
Despite a plethora of supergroups historically – Cream, Travelling Wilburys, The Highwaymen and Temple of the Dog, to name a few – the format has seemingly been foregone in favour of unexpected features. Beyond boygenius or Them Crooked Vultures, the concept seems to have been dying over the last 25 years.
Enter Drink The Sea. Made up of members/songwriters associated with 90s staples such as R.E.M., Screaming Trees, and Queens of the Stone Age, the internationally touring outfit is near-single-handedly bringing the supergroup back, with three albums released in a little over a year. Recorded across multiple continents, mostly for their own fun, the band have been bringing their interpretation of their travels around Europe, touring out of their own pocket on their own label.
The slightly egotistical decision to do a two-hour set with no support seems to hinder the group, as a large metal structure in Chalk mysteriously halves its capacity; ticket sales rarely reflect a band’s quality, though. A slideshow on screen explains to an arriving crowd the instruments each member will play tonight and their view of themselves as a ‘musical visual concept more than a traditional rock band.’
Handily, the slideshow format introduces each song with its own visuals, shot in the location where it was recorded. Thumping opener ‘Shaking For The Snakes’ features footage of a man in a turban wandering through the desert, while the funk swing of ‘Saturn Calling’ sees Johannes take on the vocals backed by footage of factories and rolling roads filled with trucks and flanked by pylons. Drink The Sea’s sliding layers of percussion, plus Lisette Garcia and Barrett Martin’s bass and kick-drum-driven rhythm, are hypnotic, providing a foundation for Peter Buck’s signature jangle to shine through alongside Alain Johannes’ virtuosity. ‘Outside Again’ feels like house music tumbling through a desert as a skittish rhythm section dances beneath Buck’s resonant notes. It becomes clear we are watching some of the most talented musicians on earth, let alone their former bands, just having fun together – like intruding on a studio jam session.
‘Deep As The Sun’ feels like The Brian Jonestown Massacre sweated through Queens of the Stone Age, a sludging onslaught of guitars slamming down on our heads. “Peter Buck on guitar” announces Martin, as he introduces the band – we all know who they are already. Hitting their stride, ‘Big Dirty’ is a syncopated rhythmic flow-state, interlocked with a swaggering, searing riff into a tidal-wave of sound swirling and smacking, backed by contrasting visuals of flamingos on the water. ‘It Makes The Rain Slow’ sees Johannes back on vocals, with a guitar slide on his finger, for a slow-burning Latin-infused number that still grows into a wall-of-sound blues stomp.
Across a mammoth two hours of playing, stories of each track’s inception pepper the set. The band are exceptionally well-travelled; Garwood introduces the largely instrumental hypnosis of ‘Sacred Tree’ with a story on Brazil, ending in a visit to Joshua Tree. Their worldwide visual concept captures music’s globally unifying power, with Johannes deploying rhythmic guitar to back Buck across the polyrhythmic psych of ‘Bembe For Two’ while the delay-drenched strings of ‘Pour Your Glow On’ see him downstroking a cigar-box guitar.
Drink The Sea seem impossible to pin down. Even in a slower section, ‘Meteors’ sees arpeggiated, choro-style guitar meet thwacks of upright bass for a floating atmosphere, while ‘Embers’ leans into slow-burning psychedelia, with Martin moving from his drum kit to draw shards of sound from the vibraphone with a violin bow. Despite the obvious skill on display, a crowd expecting the stomp of the earlier tracks takes this moment as an interval to grab a pint and go to the toilet. The artistry is undeniably masterful, but it often feels like the set becomes more for the band rather than the audience they’re playing for – oftentimes like we’ve paid to come and watch them in their studio.
While this approach risks alienating the audience, the sheer musicality of rightfully considered legends on stage retains the respect they deserve, with patience granted by the audience – I suppose if you architected 90s music with R.E.M. or Mark Lanegan, you’ve earned some graces. This is rewarded with a moment of audience participation, as Martin gets the audience to clap along to the driving Motown beat on ‘House Of Flowers’ – even if this pulse is drowned beneath layers of percussive vibraphone and sparkling acoustic guitar work from Buck.
“Go Duke!” someone in the audience shouts, splitting the gap between the haunting folk-drive of ‘The Strangest Season’ and the vibrant shredding of moody ‘The Rubble King’; the audience’s patience is finally rewarded. “This is a song from a band I was in called Mad Season. It’s for Mark Lanegan, Layne Staley and Chris Cornell,” Martin states, honouring his dearly departed former bandmates before ‘Long Gone Day’ skulks through. Johannes adopts the Arabic oud; Martin’s mid-tempo, syncopated minimalist drums stutter irresolutely behind lyrics of “All of my past/come on down.” A fitting tribute to a former supergroup by his new one, the rumbling march of the overdriven ‘Land Of Spirits’ and the rampaging smash-and-grab of ‘Between The Teeth’ signal the end of Drink The Sea’s own catalogue.
Shockingly, the jangling riff of R.E.M.’s ‘The One I Love’ is beefed up and aired. Johannes, a solid stand-in for Michael Stipe’s inimitable vocals, is drowned out by a genuine singalong from a crowd old enough to still miss the dissolved band’s glory days. “I wrote this one with Mark Lanegan… it ended up on ‘Songs For The Deaf’” signals ‘Hangin’ Tree’ – a hypnotically marauding roar of guitars screaming and never quite resolving.
Following an abruptly sharp finish, the group bow down to us all in evident gratitude for our now-destroyed ears for the night. Shifting from South American rhythms to jazz time signatures to desert rock unequivocally confirms Drink The Sea as a remarkably exciting outfit of legends and ethnomusicologists. Attempting to revive the supergroup, Drink The Sea take us around the world in 26 songs: a necessary musical reminder that even in divisive times we all share the same skies.
Drink The Sea:
Peter Buck – electric & acoustic guitar
Lisette Garcia – vibraphone & percussion
Duke Garwood – vocals, electric guitar & soprano saxophone
Alain Johannes – vocals, cigar box guitar, electric guitar & Arabic oud
Barrett Martin – vocals, drums & vibraphone
Kelsey Mines – electric & upright bass
Drink The Sea setlist:
‘Shaking For The Snakes’ (from 2025 ‘Drink The Sea I’ album)
‘Saturn Calling’ (from 2025 ‘Drink The Sea I’ album)
‘Outside Again’ (from 2025 ‘Drink The Sea I’ album)
‘Deep As The Sun’ (from 2026 ‘Drink The Sea III’ album)
‘Big Dirty’ (from 2026 ‘Drink The Sea III’ album)
‘It Makes The Rain Slow’ (from 2026 ‘Drink The Sea III’ album)
‘Oh Desire’ (from 2026 ‘Drink The Sea III’ album)
‘Sever’ (from 2026 ‘Drink The Sea III’ album)
‘Parisian Voodoo’ (from 2026 ‘Drink The Sea III’ album)
‘I’ll Be Your Shelter’ (from 2026 ‘Drink The Sea III’ album)
‘Sacred Tree’ (from 2025 ‘Drink The Sea II’ album)
‘Bembe For Two’ (from 2025 ‘Drink The Sea II’ album)
‘Pour Your Glow On’ (from 2025 ‘Drink The Sea I’ album)
‘Meteors’ (from 2025 ‘Drink The Sea II’ album)
‘Embers’ (from 2025 ‘Drink The Sea I’ album)
‘Turn To Gold’ (from 2026 ‘Drink The Sea III’ album)
‘Heal’ (from 2026 ‘Drink The Sea III’ album)
‘Becalmed’ (from 2026 ‘Drink The Sea III’ album)
‘House Of Flowers’ (from 2025 ‘Drink The Sea I’ album)
‘The Strangest Season’ (from 2025 ‘Drink The Sea I’ album)
‘The Rubble King’ (from 2026 ‘Drink The Sea III’ album)
‘Long Gone Day’ (Mad Season cover)
‘Land Of Spirits’ (from 2025 ‘Drink The Sea I’ album)
‘Between The Teeth’ (from 2026 ‘Drink The Sea III’ album)
‘The One I Love’ (R.E.M. cover)
‘Hangin’ Tree’ (Queens of the Stone Age cover)
