Gig Review: Seahaven

Birthday’s in Dalston is about as hipster as venues come. It’s in Dalston for a start. Upstairs there’s a burger joint that serves food on trays, but to be fair, does do a mean sweet potato burger and some extraodinary cheesy chips, oh, those cheesy chips… The stage is in the basement, and it’s a fair size considering its location. Most venues east of Liverpool Street fit about 100 patrons, but Birthday’s has a capacity of around 250. That means they also get slightly bigger bands than I’m used to travelling to Dalston for, including the not that hipster Seahaven a few weeks ago. Supported by Battle Lines, who seem to have not decided on a coherent sound yet, and Nai Harvest, who are one of my favourite British bands at the moment. After those cheesy chips I really didn’t think my night could get any better, but the bands did their best.

Nai Harvest are at the forefront of the UK emo scene. A garagey two-piece with intelligent guitar work and catchy tunes galore, they aren’t far off being able to headline venues like Birthday’s themselves. The tunes started early, with Whatever and I Don’t Even Know straight off the bat. Nai Harvest always bring all the energy of their music to the live setting, but not all of the crunch. It’s hard to provide all the range with only two of you and no studio magic, and Nai Harvest sometimes to struggle in the bass region. This certainly wasn’t the worst I’ve seen them, but it still wasn’t quite right. Ending with the brilliant Sitcom Fade-In and Hold Open My Head did a little to assuage my problems though. It was a very short set, cut shorter by Ben breaking a string during the intro to their first attempt at Whatever. Of course, that is to be expected with a support slot, but I certainly could have done with a bit more.

Seahaven operate in the niche between alternative rock and post-hardcore, sounding like a slightly more mature Taking Back Sunday or the band that Placebo could have been. Debut EP Ghost and album Winter Forever were both pretty catchy listens, if perhaps not having the musical depth to hold the attention for too long. Their sophomore effort, Reverie Music: Music for Escapism Only, came out earlier this year, and its focus on a much more mellow sound produced a very interesting, if perhaps less exciting listen. Live they go for a fairly even mix between tracks off both albums, making for a pretty varied and interesting live show.

Opening with Goodnight is a solid move. It’s Seahaven at their absolute catchiest, and with some great shoutalong but highly introspective lyrics, it’s one of their most popular. Following this up with standout track off Reverie Music, Andreas, is also a good idea. It’s indie rock with an edge, and it’s really good. It sounds a bit like Devil and God era Brand New, except with Kyle Soto’s nasal mumbling (it’s not that bad). Seahaven’s albums all seem to have a fairly even mix of good and bad tracks, but luckily, they seem to have a fairly similar opinion on which are the good ones as me. Love to Burn, Flesh and Wild West Selfishness are probably my other favourite cuts off the new album, and dropping Black and White off of Winter Forever also goes down really well. The one curveball off the new album is Highway Blues, a, well, blues song. It’s just Kyle and his guitar and it’s surprisingly beautiful. Live it’s just as touching, although the general chatter makes me think that perhaps others didn’t appreciate it as much as I did. The crowd certainly did enjoy the closing track: It’s Over. Fitting both in style and in name, it’s a great end to the set, with the whole room having one last singalong.

Overall, I really enjoyed Seahaven. They produced a really nice mix of heavy, catchy and mellow, and the variety led to the set keeping my interest throughout. They’re certainly not going to move mountains any time soon, but they’re good at what they do, and they’re worth checking out if you like your alt-rock with a touch of heavy thrown in.