Noise, Reverb and Beautiful Chaos: The Indie Night at The Vic Inn 

The Vic Inn has always suited nights where the bands do not necessarily fit neatly alongside one another, and The Indie Night’s 25 July bill ended up being a particularly good example. With Luna Rosa unfortunately unable to make the show, Nottingham youngsters Velveteen stepped in alongside Manchester’s Mancunion and Fools & Sages for an evening that travelled from chaotic grunge and punk, through psychedelic Manchester rock, before finishing somewhere between gothic metal, ethereal pop and outright heaviness. Three very different bands, but each brought enough personality to make the night feel coherent rather than thrown together.

Velveteen bring chaos, noise and plenty of personality

There is something immediately likeable about Velveteen. They are a young Nottinghamshire band who seem completely uninterested in standing still, taking themselves too seriously or keeping their music within one particular genre. Their opening instrumental gave very little indication of where the set was eventually going, before the guitarist took over vocals for the second track and the band’s slightly unhinged personality began to emerge.

By the third song, the drummer was on vocals and introducing us to the tale of Dodgy Den from Bulwell, complete with the brilliantly bleak sentiment that while Den may still be alive, he is definitely going to hell. It was funny, scrappy and full of character, but underneath the messing around was a band with some serious musical ideas. There were flashes of Arctic Monkeys in some of the sleazier guitar work, but Velveteen would repeatedly twist those moments into punk, grunge and something considerably more abrasive. The drummer also revealed an unexpectedly great falsetto, adding another strange little dimension to a band already refusing to settle into an obvious formula.

A song about a bloke called Bobby pulled things towards a proper 90s pop-punk sound before the set descended further into chaos. At one point the drummer announced that he had never had a good dream in his life and began explaining a dream in which his friend died, only for the guitarist to quickly cut the story short. It led into what appeared to be Dreamscape, a grungy, chaotic and slightly sleazy track that demonstrated just how widely Velveteen are drawing their influences.

The final stretch was where they really came alive. A Smashing Pumpkins-esque grunge number gradually became louder and more distorted before exploding into a frantic Nirvana-style punk assault. The guitarist ended up on the floor, screams replaced singing and everything became wonderfully messy. Another brutally fast grunge track pushed things even heavier with guttural vocals before, because apparently there still was not enough noise happening, a violin appeared and was used less as a delicate classical instrument and more as another weapon in the band’s sonic arsenal.

Closing with Nirvana’s Breed could have exposed a young band wearing their influences too obviously, but Velveteen absolutely did it justice. More importantly, they captured the chaotic spirit behind it rather than simply copying the song. Funny, energetic, unpredictable and overflowing with personality, Velveteen felt like a band still discovering exactly what they want to be, and that was half the fun. There are a lot of influences fighting for space in their music right now, but if they can harness that chaos without polishing away what makes them exciting, there is plenty to keep an eye on here.

Mancunion sound unmistakably Manchester without becoming a cliché

Next came Mancunion, returning to Derby for the first time since playing The Bell Hotel and bringing a completely different atmosphere with them. Their name inevitably means comparisons to a certain Manchester band are going to follow them around, something they are clearly very aware of. After the soulful, atmospheric opening of Simple Minded, they joked about constantly being asked whether they were going to play Oasis. They weren’t. Later, they even asked Velveteen whether they sounded anything like Oasis. The answer was a fairly definitive no.

And they don’t. Mancunion possess some of the swagger and self-assurance associated with Manchester’s great guitar bands, but musically there is much more happening here. If anything, their psychedelic guitars, bluesy solos and willingness to stretch songs into long instrumental sections place them closer to the lineage of The Stone Roses and classic rock than mid-90s Britpop. There is also a punkier edge sitting beneath some of the material that prevents things becoming too indulgent.

One of the evening’s nicest moments came when the frontman explained that, despite now being 34, one of the songs dated all the way back to when he was 16. Danny apparently liked it enough to take the story over before the band launched into Whispers, a track carrying a little more punk in its bones. That mixture of old ideas and a more mature band finding new ways to present them seemed appropriate for Mancunion. They sound like people who have absorbed decades of British guitar music without feeling obliged to recreate any single period of it.

Never Wanted slowed everything down. Distorted guitars sat underneath atmospheric licks that seemed to reverberate around the little Vic room before the song swelled into a thunderous chorus. It remained moody and measured even at its loudest, while the lead guitar became increasingly impressive as the set continued. There was real soul in the playing, with intricate fills and little solos appearing throughout rather than simply waiting for the obligatory big guitar moment.

The harder rock of the next part of the set brought classic rock and roll into the mix, while Frayed Out slowed things back down again and contained some of the finest guitar work of the evening. At points the guitar genuinely seemed to cry through the room. From there Mancunion pushed even further into psychedelia, filling The Vic with reverb and wah-wah as another atmospheric track developed into a huge, indulgent instrumental passage. There were shades of The Stone Roses at their most expansive, the kind of extended guitar section John Squire and the lads would probably have appreciated, and it was difficult not to find your head gradually bobbing along with it.

Set In Stone brought things home at a much faster pace. Ironically, it was perhaps the only point in the set where a slight Oasis feeling did creep in, but even then Mancunion quickly pushed it somewhere punkier and rougher. They are unapologetically Manc, but reducing them to the obvious comparisons would be doing them a disservice. This is psychedelic, bluesy, soulful rock and roll played with the confidence of a band who know exactly where they come from. An absolutely superb set.

Fools & Sages turn The Vic into a gothic fairy tale

Fools & Sages took another sharp turn. Within the first song there were hints of Wolf Alice, but things quickly became considerably heavier. Psychedelic, gothic, atmospheric and occasionally bordering on metal, the band created a strange fantasy world of huge guitars and genuinely excellent vocals. There is darkness to the music, but also something almost whimsical running through it, particularly as Grace dances around the stage like a fairy while enormous metal riffs crash around her.

The second track brought flashes of Evanescence, particularly in the combination of dramatic vocals and heavy guitars, while Bittersweet, the first song the band ever released, tapped into an early-2000s emo feeling without abandoning the classic metal running underneath. Delicate chimes and atmospheric guitar at the end gave it an almost mystical quality. That contrast became one of the most interesting things about Fools & Sages: they can sound beautiful and fragile one moment before becoming absolutely enormous the next.

Grace introduced River of Dreams Parts One and Two with the story behind them, explaining the songs’ themes of identity and the journey towards becoming comfortable with who you are. Played together, they became one of the centrepieces of the set, giving the band room to build an atmosphere rather than constantly chasing the next chorus. The guitar solos were superb throughout, but the vocals were equally capable of carrying the quieter moments and then cutting straight through the band once everything became heavy again.

Safe Haven demonstrated that dynamic particularly well. Written around loss, it opened with twinkling guitars and a stripped-back combination of vocalist and guitarist that briefly transformed the room. It was genuinely beautiful, but Fools & Sages were never going to leave it there. Gradually the rest of the band arrived and the song grew until the delicate opening had transformed into a massive, heavy monster.

Their final song, released only a few months earlier, was jokingly presented as their ‘girly pop’ moment. Girly pop apparently means something rather different in the Fools & Sages universe, because it soon went completely mental. Yet there actually is a strong pop sensibility buried underneath the metal. The hooks are there, the melodies are there and Grace has the stage presence to sell them, even while everything surrounding her sounds like a psychedelic gothic storm.

Calling it ‘hippy metal’ might be reductive, but there is something wonderfully fitting about the description. Fools & Sages combine metal, goth, psychedelia, emo and pop with this strange mystical energy that gives them an identity of their own. Add an outstanding vocalist and some seriously good guitar playing and they were a brilliant way to finish the evening.

The Indie Night had three very different propositions at The Vic on 25 July. Velveteen arrived as late replacements and delivered youthful grunge chaos with enough personality to make you want to see where they go next. Mancunion filled the room with psychedelic, blues-soaked Manchester rock and some exceptional guitar work. Fools & Sages then took everything somewhere heavier, darker and considerably more magical.

It is exactly the kind of bill that works at The Vic. You might walk in expecting an indie night, but there is no guarantee what ‘indie’ is going to mean by the time the final band finishes. On this occasion it meant Nirvana covers, psychedelic guitar solos, gothic fairy metal, jokes about Oasis and at least one violin being used to create an ungodly amount of noise. That’s a pretty decent Saturday night.

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