Review: Dot to Dot 2022
Words by Kerry Mead, Fran Pope and Von Cake.
Images by Vonalina Cake Photography and Fran Pope.
Dot to Dot Festival 2022 has done it again. Held yearly in Bristol and Nottingham, Dot to Dot is a must for any music fan’s calendar. The festival showcases some of the best up and coming artists in different venues across the two cities over one weekend, and it always delivers without fail; not just the cream of the crop from the plethora of current musical talent available spanning a multitude of genres, but also always managing to bring the sunshine with it to both cities, along with a buzzing, positive atmosphere.
We attended Bristol’s Saturday instalment on 28th May. Some of the best venues across the city host Dot to Dot in Bristol, including big names like the Bristol Beacon and 02 Academy, and smaller grassroots venues like The Fleece, The Louisiana and Strange Brew. As always, it’s damn near impossible to see everyone on your must-see list, but between them culture editor Kerry Mead, music editor Fran Pope and writer and camera-wielder Vonalina Cake valiantly did their best to cram in as much as possible to give you a taste of what you missed (or didn’t), and what fresh talent to watch out for over the coming year.
The Outlines
The Outlines kick started our Dot to Dot on the Top Deck at Thekla. Big Jeff is a Bristol institution with his presence at so many great music events, and his new band is hitting the festival circuit with gusto. The Outlines are Zach Hawthorn on guitar and lead vocals and Jeff on drums with backing vocals. They take a very literal straight-line approach to songwriting which creates a somewhat abstract and surreal landscape of things we can all chime with: being socially awkward, making mistakes, and of course, love and all the havoc it causes. With their punky sensibilities and honest songs, they reached out to us with their heart and soul.
Bristol six-piece DAMEFRISØR had the not-insignificant task of opening at the O2, and they did a grand job of it. With the sun beating down outside and the streets knotted with 2 p.m. crowds, the venue felt like an oasis – dark, cool, and glowing with blue and purple lights. Looking perfectly at home on the big-venue stage, DAMEFRISØR brought the perfect vibe – a supercharged blend of mournful post-punk vocals, hopping bass guitar, thick synths and a beat impossible to stand still to – and their delivery was razor-sharp.
Honeyglaze
In The Louisiana’s living-room-like bar space, Saloon Dion were an explosion of anarchic and joyous energy. A big sound in a small space, they pounded us with raw punk-infused noise, and they were absolutely brilliant. With a blistering set-list, a wicked sense of humour and a song about Thatcher’s Gold, there wasn’t much not to love about Saloon Dion. Their total lack of pretention (“This is a new song… so we might fucking get it fucking wrong!”) belies how ridiculously good they are.
Playing to a full crowd at The Fleece, London trio Honeyglaze were the chillest band Fran saw all day, utterly poised in their straight-up delivery of clear-eyed indie goodness. Layering an intriguing array of satisfying guitar rhythms, jazzy bass patterns and cool vocals, they seem to do so much with relatively few ingredients, and the thoughtful craft of their tracks really shone through.
After a guitar-heavy early instalment, it was time to sample some of Dot to Dot’s more electronic-based offerings. Miso Extra’s Misoverse, ruled over by the English-Japanese rapper and singer and a project dreamt up in lockdown to hone her production skills, is an eclectic ride into slick hip-hop beats, dark synths and candy-floss-edged vocals, all of which take elements from and allude to her dual heritage.
Her debut EP Great Taste came out in March, but she has already garnered enough attention to pack out the bottom of The Thekla at 4.30 in the afternoon. Listening to Great Taste feels darker in mood than seeing Miso Extra live; her energy was enthusiastic and her touch light and almost innocent, her dazzling smile and playful interactions won over the rapt audience and she was obviously over the moon to be on stage. Sadly, the sound wasn’t of the best quality, and although her vocals were clear, the excellent production on her recorded material was hard to locate unless you knew it was there already. In spite of this, DJ Oh Annie Oh’s solid presence in the background and her provision of the electronic instrumentals was faultless, and we’ve got a feeling you are going to be hearing a lot more from both of them.
The beauty of Dot-to-Dot’s multi-venue showcasing of new names in music (both big and also less well-known) lies in the hidden corners, not necessarily on the main stages, and proof of this came quickly when we left The Thekla to make our way to Bristol Beacon. The Dockside stage was a bit of a pitstop for hungry and thirsty punters heading to the food stalls and bar; a place to sit down with a pint, take some time out from the packed schedule, get out your programme and work out where to go next. But as we passed by, it threw up one of the best moments of out-and-out rock-driven goodness of the day.
Priestgate
Rural Yorkshire newcomers Priestgate looked good enough to stop us in our tracks, and as soon as we spotted Big Jeff in the small crowd in front of the stage we knew they’d probably be pretty good. Lead singer Rob Schofield was giving us his all; shirtless in front of the stage; a slice of Iggy Pop twisting and jumping in the middle of a sunny, bunting-festooned carpark. The rest of the band were faultless. On closer inspection, it seems these guys have already been singled out for great things by the likes of NME and have been likened to The Cure, and we don't disagree. We can’t wait to spend more than a cursory ten minutes watching them, and on a bigger stage next time.
KEG
Our second surprise catch of the day on the Dockside stage was KEG. Luring us in with sporadic jumpy guitars and smooth trombone, KEG are a seven-piece from Brighton with each of them bringing their own flavour to the eclectic lineup. No idea how they squeezed onto that little stage but they just about managed and gave a really energetic performance in the sunshine. Albert Haddenham led the band with his staccato vocals, with Will Wiffen on synth and Charlie Keen on the trombone giving it a post-punk, experimental kind of joy. All members played their parts immaculately.
It seems a little diminutive to describe Jockstrap as just an alternative pop project, as, since their first release in 2018, these two recent graduates of London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama have already forged a name for themselves as one of the most leftfield purveyors of genre-busting and experimental yet danceable music around at the moment. They played Bristol Beacon’s cavernous entry hall on Saturday afternoon, and it was almost as busy as we’ve ever seen it. The duo entered the unadorned stage flooded with sunshine and got straight to it - they create a layered, complicated, huge sound which is bigger than the sum of its parts - and it was hyper-evident this afternoon they don’t need a big light show and cool backdrop to hold the audience’s attention.
Georgia Ellery was studying jazz and Taylor Skye electronic music when they started making music together, and their mastery of both was evident, especially in Georgia’s incredible, ethereal, far-ranging vocals; poetic lyricism (always heartrending but never too earnest); and jazz violin. Both had a huge stage presence too - Ellery winds and moves hypnotically, whilst Skye often pauses to observe the crowd in an almost threatening, disdainful way, his laser-like stare unsettling and at times uncomfortable, before he returns to manipulating samples and layering synths which expand each track ad infinitum, adding a welcome element of density and complication, rather than cutting and pasting Ellery’s natural flow.
They finished on 50:50, the first single from their latest EP, which is a distillation of everything they do well - heavy beats, crystalline vocals, acid breaks, pounding bass and a sound bigger and weirder than you would ever think two people could conjure into being alone. Jockstrap will never be to everyone’s taste (as a quick chat with others afterwards proved), but in all fairness they were Kerry’s Dot to Dot highlight this year. And who wants music that everyone universally “likes” when you can have something a huge handful love instead, in spite of leaving feeling like you’ve received a telling-off from the guy behind the Roland?
Alt-rock foursome Enter Red were another favourite, a band Fran just happened to be in the right place for at the right time. Since moving to Bristol, they’ve been active on the gig circuit, headlining and supporting shows at various venues around the city. The rave reviews and radio plays they’ve received are well-deserved: an incredibly tight sound bringing together massive driving guitars, crisp melodies and hard-rocking drum riffs with singer Kyle’s distinctive and assured vocals. Seeing them play Rough Trade’s intimate performance space was pretty special, and we feel like they’ll be filling huge venues before long.
Hector the Boogeyman, Try me.
We’ve loved Try Me since we first interviewed them in 2020. Best mates Bendy Wendy and Hector the Boogeyman have been bringing their own brand of tongue-in-cheek punk-disco-funk to Bristol’s music scene for a while now, so it was only right and fitting we make our way over to The Lanes in the early evening, squeeze through the packed crowd to the front and check them out live at long last.
The overarching sense you get from a Try Me gig is good vibes - the love from their audience, their love of being on stage and their obvious love for each other shone through their whole set. Part music and part stand-up routine, Wendy and Hector often had the crowd in stitches, and a particular highlight was when they riffed a song about one of the audience members they had just questioned about who they were and where they were from - not only was it funny, but bloody funky too. But it wasn’t all comedy and good vibes; they were skilled at their craft too. Behind the hectic, quirky exterior, Wendy gave off Peaches vibes and held the stage confidently with punk sensibility and precision. Hector knows exactly what to do with a guitar, and the tracks were chock-full of infectious hooks, strutting basslines and sweeping synth melodies.
Oliver Malcolm was like a bolt of lightning on Strange Brew’s stage. Fran has never seen anyone like him: scrunching rhythms, weird choppy samples, slicing lyrics and totally off-the-wall energy. There was a sizeable crowd of in-the-know fans going wild at the front yelling back lyrics, but Oliver Malcolm had the whole room dancing. Already counting tens of thousands of listeners in Europe and the US, he will definitely have left Bristol with a dancefloor-full of new converts.
Moving into headliner territory, Von caught some of Jane Weaver’s set at The Fleece. Her band are tight, super tight, and Von did enjoy the momentary glimpses of modular glory from Andy Votel on synth, but it was largely all a bit trudgy and pedestrian compared to the rest of the day’s offerings. At the other end of the spectrum, Brighton post-punk heavyweights Squid were as massive as you’d expect, packing out the O2 to the rafters for the big last set of the festival. Stepping between relentless slabs of noise and downtempo, tension-building instrumentals, weaving deadpan spoken lyrics in with full-on screaming, Squid were not for the faint-hearted. They sent the O2 into a strobe-lit frenzy, and you could feel the love. With a huge sound and a stage presence to match, they closed the day on a voice-losing, ear-ringing high.
Squid
Opinion
