Seafood

Seafood have a consistent ability to encapsulate the beauty and tenderness of a perfectly formed melody. Their music drifts seamlessly from the quiet, serenely touching to powerfully emotive crescendos, a style that has become an inveterate theme throughout their back catalogue.

It’s hard to believe that in their ten year reign Seafood have never quite broken down the mainstream barricade. Commercial success has become more and more an elusive target as the band no longer belong to that grouping of new trend setting bands that are backed up by that irritating indie snobbery constructed by certain members of the over enthusiastic music press.

Seafood’s gallant persistency has earned them a loyal following of fans, which in turn has allowed them to keep doing what they’re best at; making brilliant music and taking it on tour, and with five albums under their belt it would be a travesty if their material was allowed to disappear into a void of forgotten gems.



The last time I had seen Seafood, some five years ago, lead singer David Line had come on stage and made a hash up of an Ali-G impersonation (bo-wakyasha?) before quickly announcing that they were ‘Fucking Seafood’.

Even though the band have matured since then, and undergone a line-up change, they still possess that innate ability to construct beautiful heartfelt melodies, and still pull it off rather spectacularly live.

After the departure of original bassist Kevin Hendrick, Seafood were joined by Jet Plane Landing’s Cahir O’ Doherty, who also plays lead in tonight’s support band Fighting With Wire, which makes tonight a bit of a marathon gig for him.

Seafood open with ‘Cloaking’, the first track from 2001’s ‘When do we start the fighting?’ It sets the tone for the rest of the gig and the poignant immediacy of Cloaking’s chorus draws the crowd in from the very start.

Persistent chants for ‘Guntrip’ were answered with a rare delve back into some of Seafood’s earlier material, no ‘Porchlight’ this time round though. Of course much of the material featured in tonight’s performance was taken from the new album ‘Paper Crown King’. They were obviously keen to promote their latest work after an unfortunate illness disrupted the promotion of their previous album ‘As the Cry Flows’. The new material certainly hasn’t lost any of the charm that was present in the old albums, and Seafood haven’t let themselves sink into the threads of depressing indie monotony.



‘Little Pieces’ builds on previous hits like ‘Western Battle’ and ‘Good Reason’, by employing ridiculously catchy riffs and filling them with overdrive. ‘Good Reason’ was omitted from the set-list, but surprisingly it wasn’t missed that much. Seafood have got to a point in their career when they can just pull out any manner of great tunes, many of which seem destined for anthem potential.

‘Similar Assassin’ was a notable highlight, retaining all the intricate subtlety of its recorded version. The quieter moments in the set (including a brilliant acoustic from Line) were in great juxtaposition with the heavier numbers, resulting in a perfectly balanced set list.

To those that have had the opportunity to see them, Seafood are unmistakably Britain’s best kept secret. Few bands have managed to soldier on and keep producing such great material while remaining relatively unnoticed.

The music press will more than likely dismiss Seafood with a quick backhand, probably because they’re not quite cool enough to fit in with today’s fast-food music chain of hype it-like it-hate it- kill it . But it’s quite clear that the band are a rare talent, and one break could be all they need. If it can happen to Snow Patrol...

FUTURE GIGS

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