Words by Joanna Long and Laura Rosierse
Photo by Devon Chambers
Last Monday night we headed to The Grove for an evening of infectious indie and powerful wonk pop, Lime Garden and Sarah Crean surprised and captivated, and made for a wonderfully fun night!
I’d expected a solo act from the name Sarah Crean, and hadn’t had the time to do my research ahead of arriving at The Grove, but when Crean and band entered the stage I was hooked. They brought a vibrant and eclectic set of indie rock releases driven by soaring vocals and a tight ass band to The Grove’s well-let stage. They warmed up a rather cool crowd ahead of an eruptive set of incredibly catchy genre-blending anthems and short stories told by Lime Garden.
Someone asked me what genre Lime Garden fitted into as I was heading out of the door to see them at The Grove in Newcastle. “Kind of indie grunge,” I started, “with a bit of pop, definitely rock and maybe even a hint of disco in there too…” It might have been one of the hardest musical descriptions I’ve ever had to conjure up, not because their music is vague or nondescript, but because there’s so much variety, creativity and subject matter woven into it. Thankfully, the band have already come up with their own description, ‘wonk pop’, an eclectic, offbeat blend of indie, rock and dance-punk. I wasn’t too far off, then.
I’d been looking forward to seeing Lime Garden live for some time, having caught their music on mainstream radio more than once and watched their following steadily grow. The all-female four-piece, originally formed in Guildford, Surrey, have been making quite an impression, and judging by the grin-ridden, packed room at The Grove, Newcastle was more than ready to welcome them. This was their first headline show in the city, something the band clearly appreciated, particularly given it was a Monday night and apparently there was some rather important football happening elsewhere. We won’t mention the score.
Kicking off with ‘Body’, Lime Garden launched into a set that mixed earlier material with more recent releases, including ‘Pop Star’, ‘Lifestyle’ and ‘Moving Target’. Frontwoman Chloe Howard has a vocal versatility that certainly brings Shirley Manson to mind, switching effortlessly between gritty, almost menacing tones and something far more melodic and powerful. There’s an attitude to her delivery too, one that suits the band’s refusal to be neatly pigeonholed. The songs themselves cover plenty of ground, both musically and lyrically; long-distance relationships, exes and beer all featured in Chloe’s introductions, arguably the foundations of many a successful British band.
The audience, however, was a curious one to begin with. There was plenty of applause and appreciation between songs, but surprisingly little conversation or movement. Perhaps everyone was simply absorbed in the music, although it was clearly not quite the reaction the band had anticipated. Chloe encouraged everyone to dance so she didn’t “look like a dickhead doing it alone”, while drummer Annabel Whittle told me afterwards that during the earlier part of the set, “you could hear a pin drop” from where she was sitting; not exactly the usual north east welcome where we’re generally quite happy to make ourselves heard.
Thankfully, things began to shift around ‘Bitter’, with heads nodding, feet moving and the room gradually loosening up. ‘Do You Know What I’m Thinking?’ was introduced as the only sad song of the evening, before the band turned back to some older material with ‘I Want To Be You’, and by this point, the audience had warmed considerably, the earlier stillness giving way to a growing mass of movement. It was lovely to see support artist Sarah Crean watching from the side of the stage too, and seemingly knowing just about every word.
On stage, Chloe was the natural focal point, chatting easily between tracks, occasionally swapping her guitar for a tambourine and exchanging snippets of gossip and laughter with her bandmates. Guitarist Leila Deeley and bassist Tippi Morgan delivered their parts with an almost understated confidence, while Annabel kept everything firmly in check from behind the drum kit. And there’s something rather refreshing about a band that doesn’t feel the need to overcomplicate its stage presence, allowing the musicianship to speak for itself with punchy guitar riffs, driving bass and tight percussion providing the foundations for songs that can change direction almost when you least expect them to.
‘Downtown Lover’, ‘Clockwork’ and ‘Baby Not Tonight’ kept the momentum going, the band’s distinctive blend of guitar-driven indie and danceable rhythms now finding a much more receptive room, and by ‘All Bad Parts’, the crowd were singing along, with a continued enthusiasm that carried through ‘Love Song’ and ‘Cross My Heart’. And then came ’23’. What a way to finish. Thunderous, brilliantly lyrical and delivered with all the attitude and energy that makes Lime Garden such an interesting band to watch. By now, the earlier reservations in the room had disappeared, replaced by an audience that was finally giving back some of what had been coming from the stage all evening, and baying for more once the song had finished and the band had left the stage.
Lime Garden might be a band whose music is difficult to define, but perhaps that’s precisely what makes them so appealing. They can be playful, gritty, melodic and wonderfully off-kilter, sometimes within the space of a single song, and live, those contrasts become even more apparent. I went into The Grove struggling to describe their sound; I came out thinking ‘wonk pop’ probably does the job rather nicely.
