Live Review: Johnny Foreigner, Toodles & The Hectic Pity, Hamburger | The Exchange, Bristol | 05/05/22
The Exchange has long fostered a reputation for giving the emerging scene a platform. But tonight it's hosting one of the bands that raised their current clientele: Johnny Foreigner.
Hamburger
“We’re gonna get sad, then we’re going to get a bit happy, but then we’re going to get sad again”, piques tonight’s openers Hamburger. In total fairness, it’s a concise and accurate encapsulation of the Bristol natives take on lethargic emo, but as the band breezily coast through their set, it’s certainly not one that could be described as comprehensive or one that does their sound justice. Airily performing content from their 2020 debut LP Teenage Terrified, it’s honestly staggering how a band of this modest stature creatively articulates such a wonderful and palatable understanding of the lo-fi emo artform without deluging into tired cliches.
As the band air a sound that’s musically featherweight yet atmospherically crushing, Hamburger presents a dichotomy that see’s them channeling elements from both the pioneering age of the genre and the local scene in a way that’s seamless. Paying musical dividends to legends such as Sunny Day Real Estate, Cap’n Jazz and even debut era Modest Mouse all-whilst emitting the modernist lilt of acts such as Lande Hekt, Me Rex and Trust Fund, there’s a real sense of nostalgia and familiarity to their craft whilst it still being evidently homebrewed. Smatterings of tentative Korg synth riffs and crooning vocal melodies only amplify this, and as they close their set earnestly, it’s clear they’ve certainly made an impact with the early arrivals tonight. They may be far removed from the tightly wound excitability of tonight’s headliner but truly, Hamburger are some gourmet stuff.
Score: 9/10
Toodles & The Hectic Pity
In contrast to the bleak albeit delicious misery of Hamburger, Toodles & The Hectic Pity are a blast of rustic energy in the most major of keys. A far more excitable endeavour more in tune with the mania of Johnny Foreigner, it’s mere seconds before the trio’s high voltage craft adds many a glint to the blurry and knackered eyes of the late week attendees here tonight. Sounding akin to a sugar-addled Frightened Rabbit covering AJJ in the most enthusiastic way possible, the folk tinged emo punk gang are quite simply nothing less than a fun time tonight, swapping and trading puns and anecdotes between punchy folk songs documenting southwestern suburban life.
Singles such as ‘Menthol Cigarettes’ and the swanning ‘Ducks’ by far and large go down a treat tonight, with many in attendance undeniably already well acquainted with the local act. But still, even for those with no prior knowledge of them, it’s by far and large impossible not to agree with the band’s output and infectious, wholesome energy. Toodles & The Hectic Pity are simply the sound of a wholesome good time and as shown tonight, a band that clearly knows how to spike the energy levels of any room and environment that they find themselves in.
Score: 8/10
Johnny Foreigner
With no criticism intended, one would be forgiven for having some slight anxieties about seeing Johnny Foreigner in the year 2022. Given how tonight’s audience appears to be composed of ex-scene arbiters desperately savouring their final dregs of youth and considering how Johnny Foreigner where a product of the bygone Myspace era renowned for adolescent hypermania, it wouldn’t be surprising if some where harbouring hesitations on how the band could possibly retain the energy that characterised them a decade ago. But as the four open their set with a cover of the Top Gun theme prior to diving into the classics of ‘Champagne Girls I Have Known’, ‘Lea Room’, ‘Our Bipolar Friends’ and ‘Wide Eyes Terrified’, it is absolutely crystal the years have not robbed them of the vitality that originally defined them all those years ago.
Related: Waited Up ‘Til It Was Light – A Retrospective Track By Track with Johnny Foreigner
As the band thrash, convulse and abundantly sweat through content from Waited Up ‘Til It Was Light, it almost feels like this room is transported to the halcyon days of 2008; a time where the mundanity of adulthood seemed a lifetime away. However, to say they only serve as a vessel to the rose-tinted days of youth would be criminal mis-service to Johnny Foreigner as whole. Even if they do openly joke about providing a nostalgia ticket, it’s the inclusion of new content that shows that this isn’t just a band reserved for reminiscing. Taken from a yet to be recorded album, the band’s new content authentically displays what sounds like some of their most technical work to date, with a strong emphasis on fluid math-rock being evident. It may sound superfluous to say, but it could be suggested that Johnny Foreigner could be sitting on something truly remarkable here, with the premiere of such unleashed content receiving feverish receptions greater than that of long-established hits such as ‘Every Cloakroom Ever’ and ‘A Sea To Scream At’, songs that send many of those gathered into fits of mania on their own accord.
But of course, true to the reputation that has remained steadfast after all these years, it’s the prevailing sense of chaotic fun that reigns over this set. As the crowd chant back the lyrics to ‘Criminals’, ‘Undevastator, and the timeless ‘Salt, Peppa and Spinderella’ with finger guns aloft high, it’s without question that Johnny Foreigner are still dedicated to animating and maintaining the revelry that made them such an irresistible entity as mere younglings. Even a a brief foot on the brakes in order for a tender and phone-lit rendition of the ‘Johnny Foreigner Vs. You’, doesn’t diffuse the air of highly strung and borderline childish fervour still jettisons prominently and proudly. Truly, it’s difficult to think of an act from the Myspace era that have retrained their core creativity, ethos and energy as strongly and for as long as Johnny Foreigner, and with the inclusion of new material hinting towards the next chapter of the band, it appears clear that their reputation will remained unchallenged for quite some time.
Score: 9/10