Having been blown away by a stunning Cloud Nothings performance at The Great Escape two years ago, I had high hopes and high expectations for their return to Brighton.
Their new(ish) album Here And Nowhere Else has been critically acclaimed but just falls short of truly encapsulating what a visceral and thrilling band the Cleveland rockers truly are.
Fortunately, set openers Now Hear In and Psychic Trauma found a new impact and intensity in a packed and sweaty gig venue with a raucous mosh pit to wind up, while later on Pattern Walks became a real shout-along anthem.
The highlights came when the band became a little looser, with set closer Wasted Days breaking down into freeform strumming before building back up into white noise and roaring back into a rousing finish.
But it was on tracks from 2012’s Attack On Memory where the band really came into their element with the slow-burning shoegaze of No Future/No Past and the insane instrumental Separation which tested frantic drummer Jason Gerycz to his physical extremes.
In fact, when the stage was later plunged into darkness mid-song, you half suspected the high-octane trio could have shorted the city.
So, two years on, Cloud Nothings remained a thrilling sight live but still needed to crack the code of transferring that magic into the posterity of a recording studio.
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