PORRIDGE RADIO @ TRINITY BRISTOL

Mercury Prize shortlisted Porridge Radio packed-out Trinity Community

Centre in Bristol

I was walking to the venue when I dropped my camera in the street. It

shattered into pieces, and I thought “ah fuck.” My mate told me I had better

start praying quick, since we were headed to a church.

Following a very busy year jet-setting around Europe and America – playing

at Primavera, their first American tour, and embarking in a chart battle with

Harry Styles – Porridge Radio are mid-way through their home-coming

2022 UK tour. Flanked by AlaksaAlaksa and Memory of Speke, the Brightonian

band are going from strength to strength.

Trinity Community Centre is a strange venue, in that it’s a church. The

high-vaulted ceilings give space to breathe and radiate the raw sound

around, from pillar to pillar. There’s space to stretch and to think.

A tired crowd packed out the church. Although the crowd was receptive and

positive, it was also clear that there was a sense of lethargy afflicting the

throng. Vocalist Dana Margolin coaxed the crowd into giving way to a mosh

pit, but tired feet seemed to remain static. A Tuesday night in the midst of

the cost-of-living crisis, the crowd had very little more to give, it seems.

Mosh pit aside, bassist Maddy Ryall managed a solid surf across the crowd

mid-way through the set. Later joined by Dana.

Porridge Radio have set aside 30+ tickets for each gig of this tour to help

combat the cost-of-living crisis. In conjunction with this, they’ve partnered

with the Trussell Trust to help families dependent on food banks. The band

seem genuinely kindhearted and politically attuned. As well as this, they

showed their sense of humour, keyboardist Georgie Stott cracking a well-

rehearsed joke “I recently fed my cat… get meowt of here” .. or something

in that vein….

Alaskaalaksa provided a well-deserved introduction, along with fellow

south London outfit Memory of Speke. The whole evening was enveloped

with a slow burning angst, sedated only by how tired everyone seemed. The

haggard state of the economy is being felt in every crack of society; pubs,

clubs and shubz are all threatened.

You can find out more about the Trussell Trust here:

https://www.trusselltrust.org/appeal/

Or take a look at their updates on twitter here:

https://twitter.com/TrussellTrust

Words: Skint Larry

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