Music Reviews

LIVE: Exit Calm

The Freebutt, 4th September

Exit Calm are a young band from Barnsley, South Yorkshire who have literally gone from strength to strength. The national music press have sat up and taken notice; even the NME said a few nice things. Since its 'refurbishment', I find The Freebutt to be a very depressing venue. There's absolutely no life or atmosphere to the place at all. Annoyingly, there's a sound limiter in there too – suffice to say I felt sorry for Exit Calm. Their sound relies heavily on volume and atmosphere, but good bands always manage to find a way and they didn't disappoint.

In Rob Marshall, Exit Calm have a very talented guitarist indeed. Marshall is definitely one of the most imaginative guitarists I've seen in a band for a long time; his melodies and tremolo work accompanied by a delay peddle seems to swim around the driving basslines of Simon Lindley, the haunting vocals of Nicky Smith and percussive rhythms of Scott Pemberton with such deep beauty that you instantly become hooked.

The band start with a song called 'You've Got It All Wrong' and it's as if the band have been onstage for hours. Every member looked to be in the zone of their music, which was beautiful and chaotic at the same time. Obvious comparisons to The Stone Roses will be made at some point, but I also heard elements of My Bloody Valentine and Kyuss (on even more acid – maybe!) in their music. Their set was full of hits, songs like 'Hearts and Minds', 'We're On Our Own' and (especially) 'Higher Learning' were full of feeling and energy with each song dictating how you should be feeling at that moment. There's something very honest about this band and unlike so many others there were absolutely no pretensions to them whatsoever – what you see is certainly what you get.

Judging from this short set, expect to see and hear more of Exit Calm next year. They're young, talented and have great songs – I can't wait to see them slay all pretenders around them.

Words by Mo Mostowfi
Photographs by Rosanna Dean