The Virginmarys, Kit Trigg

Beford Esquires, Friday, May 10

Kit Trigg

Serving a set of songs for sunny days and the rainier ones too - Kit Trigg the lead singer/guitarist: All the adjectives used to lovingly describe a Labrador puppy. Kit Trigg the band’s songs: A more bitey beast. There’s an edge to these lyrics. There’s experience – of life, love and loss. There’s thought, disillusion and disgust in opener ‘Snake In The Grass’ which is rich with well-delivered harmonies  A super engaging frontman, Kit smiles warmly in between songs, and is genuinely thrilled and surprised by both the size of the crowd and their applause. This is a stop-what-you’re-doing-and-listen set that embraces emotions and shifts speeds. Kit dedicates heartbreaking ‘Grow With The Flow’ to his dear friend who sadly passed away, and the crowd raise the roof in his memory tonight. Carefree career choice ode ‘I Gotta Red Strat’ is a blissfully life affirming grungy skater singalong performed with an infectious joy by the three piece. Opening with an easy groove and choppy guitars, ‘Making It’ is a quick blast of self-belief delivered with a driving backbone. Super positive, classic rocker played with fresh-faced energy, ‘Goin’ For Glory’ closes Kit Trigg’s set, but it’s not the end of the audience’s affiliation with the band. It’s the beginning  – because on the strength of their show tonight, this is a band lots of us are now gonna get into.

The Virginmarys

In a world that feels pretty much shot to shit at the minute the rock show remains a place where everyone is safe, happy and free. The voices spewing bile and projecting thinly-veiled hate onto Communities which are being made more and more vulnerable are getting heard. And it fucking sucks. Not only does a night like tonight - two of the sweetest, most talented musicians playing out their souls on stage - take you away from it all. It drowns out the whole sorry lot. It regalvanises your armour, ready to fight some more. The set this band plays, and the sheer power with which they do it, doesn’t just reignite the light that some seem intent on putting out. The Virginmarys drench it in petrol, striking match after match with song after incendiary song. Not that they’re a political band. As Ally Dickaty (vocals/guitar) tells the crowd in a full, furnace temperature Duffy’s Bar in Leicester the following night, anthemic ‘Look Out For My Brother’ is the song that best sums up The Virginmarys’ beliefs.

But even when they’re not playing live, The Virginmarys make you feel part of something. A family. A friendship. Via social media, and, of course, by simply listening to their music - which speaks to so many. Watching and listening to the crowd at Bedford tonight, some have seen the boys plenty of times previously, for others it’s their first time (insert band name related gag here should you so wish), but all are about to have their minds blown.

Settling in so quietly on stage that you could miss them if you weren’t paying attention, The Virginmarys launch straight into four and a half million Spotify listens ‘Just A Ride’. Dropping what these figures state is their best known song straight away sets the tone for the evening – most streamed song? Meh. They’re only just getting started.

Ally’s desperate howl of ‘Give me my medicine’ (‘The Meds’) is followed by has-to-be-seen-live-to-be-believed drumming from Danny Dolan in ‘Trippin’ New York City’, an explosive track driven by a synchronicity between the boys that shows their bond.

You don’t get the ferocity and almost unbearable intensity that The Virginmarys bring to Bedford tonight from many (any?) other bands. There’s only two of them, but it’s still impossible to take it all in. Danny’s sound barrier breaking (speed and volume) drumming. Ally’s broken-hearted, little boy lost lyrics sung from beneath a shock of blue hair with a barbed wire voice, singing about love (latest release ‘My Nettle’), with a little humour (the storming, striding ‘Northwest Coast’), angry, accurate societal commentary (‘There Ain’t No Future’) and hard to listen to but soooooo good to hear live ‘White Knuckle Riding’). ‘Portrait of Red’ hits hard, with Ally not really needing to sing the lines, ‘You got it’ – the crowd have him covered. Danny’s cymbal also takes a pounding, but somehow lives to see another day.

 Ally’s acoustic version of ‘Moths To A Flame’ makes your eyes prick with tears. He cuts such a solitary figure, singing this heartfelt song, even though he’s not alone, with Danny sat just a few feet away from him and the crowd close by. Not a sound comes from the utterly enthralled audience. These one song solo slots have become a regular on the boys’ live dates, but the intimacy and emotion are all-encompassing every single time.

You kinda expect that the dynamic of a duo is that one is the light to the other’s shade. The calm to the other’s storm. But on stage tonight (and every other flippin’ night to be fair) neither relents. Each brings their own frenetic force that shatters drum sticks (Danny’s) throats (Ally’s), eardrums and hearts (everyone’s within a five mile radius).  

Hearing the band’s take on ‘Crazy’ by Gnarls Barkley is particular poignant not just because they don’t tend to do covers, but due to the emotion Ally places in lyrics that aren’t his own. The boys are standout musicians, of course, but that knowledge is rekindled when you hear their take on someone else’s track.

Hotel issues from the previous couple of nights have left The Virginmarys pretty exhausted. If this is what Ally and Danny sound like when severely sleep deprived, goodness knows what getting their recommended eight hours would do. Maybe that’s why The Virginmarys don’t headline the bigger top tier city venues just yet. The world just isn’t ready. It had better get ready. Because looking at the way the radio, music press and the socials are singing their praises,  domination isn’t a threat. It’s a promise.