In Review: Bible Club

Bristol based Bible Club set out to preach on the stage of the Louisiana in their home town with a set that promises to show why they’re a band to look out for. Having released their debut EP earlier this year the band are moving with increased momentum since the loss  of a previous member resulted in the removal of one of their more popular songs, “Ford Capri”, from streaming platforms. The size and shape of the band has shifted since the founding members, originally from Southampton, settled in Bristol. Going from eight to six to the current four piece they are now.

On a path of vengeance and armed with new music, Bible Club produced a set that was biblical in nature, despite the intimate size of the Louisiana’s upstairs gig space. It demonstrated the band’s ability to instigate a storm that the audience could not help but get drawn in to. An ensemble of echoing guitars that swayed and leaned into each other created a grunge like backing track for the scripture that was preached by both guitarists James and Seth in a punchy disjointed style, that created a feeling of being told a story.

The performance peaked during their song “Electrical Wire”, instrumentally the standout of the set, which captured the bands rich ability for songwriting that marries a tempo somewhere between modern punk and cynical spoken word, taken straight out of the old testament. It enters with a brooding riff supplemented by singular hopeful notes that make the performance seem like it can’t decide what mood it’s in, until about a minute in the strumming becomes more distinctly morbid. The song descends or ascends, depending on which way you look at it, into an orchestrated chaos. This, combined with the bands unified movements becomes entrancing.

Following that were, as guitarist James admits, a couple more “chunky” songs and an unreleased track named ‘disco’. This teases that Bible Club are in the studio once more working on music to carry on their religious crusade.

Rating: 8/10