LEWSBERG

LEWSBERG/HOLY SPRINGS AT HEARTBREAKERS, SOUTHAMPTON – 20/11/22

I’m sitting alone at HEARTBREAKERS writing about an encounter I just had with a young girl in a shop, and sending texts to various people, none of whom reply. I send wife a text:

Are you receiving me? I just wondered because I’ve sent like four texts out today and no one’s got back to me. I don’t mind, I just wondered if y’all are receiving me. Over.

She doesn’t get back to me.

HOLY SPRINGS are really young. I remember those days. When you thought everything was just a matter of time. They play the sort of smudged indie rock popularised in the nineties by bands like Sonic Youth and Sebadoh and other bands beginning with 'S'. The singer even looks a little like Lou Barlow. At least I think he does. I can’t really remember what Lou Barlow looks like. It’s hard to make out a single word he’s saying but it doesn’t matter a bit. The female rhythm section are excellent – straight down the line and no messing around with not a drum fill or bass solo in sight. It’s a strange mix in the audience. To my left is a grandma type with haunted eyes who can’t be much taller than my seven year old. I can see out of the corner of my eye that she keeps looking at me and I wonder why. Just behind me is a drunk guy who keeps calling out things like, “Get your cock out!” and “Rock and roll!” and groaning loudly. It’s not quite loud enough for anyone to say anything but it’s still pretty annoying. He’s the kind of guy who will probably vomit on someone before the night is through, and I just really hope it’s not me. 

The singer told me he was influenced by Swervedriver

Being slightly older LEWSBERG are able to reach back slightly further for their influences. They play a kind of scratchy indie rock that is strongly under the influence, I think it is fair to say (I mean, who isn’t at the end of the day) of the Velvet Underground. The singer/guitarist even looks a little like John Cale. At least a little like what John Cale might once have looked like. And he plays the violin, so case closed, basically. They also have a female rhythm section which packs a punch without indulging in any fancy footwork. Right on! The other guitarist doesn’t smile once throughout the whole show. He looks chronically depressed in a kind of Joy Divisiony kind of way. I hope he’s OK. I see him chatting to someone at the end, and he seems fine, which is a relief. When it’s all over I buy a tape from the John Cale lookalike, who doesn’t really look like John Cale at all. I ask him how the tour is going. He says it is going fine.

Going fine

NB: Wife did get back to me in the end, by the way. “Received,” she wrote. “Have fun.”