LIVE REVIEW: Saint Agnes, Haggard Cat, VENUS GRRRLS, The Garage, London, 28/10/2021
Photos Credit: Stu Garneys (Brighton, 29th October 2021)
Saint Agnes are a London band known for their intense performances and wonderfully crafted music. They headed out on tour this October bringing an array of different support acts with them. Their London show had them playing The Garage with Haggard Cat and VENUS GRRRLS a few days before Halloween, a season quite suited to them and their fans.
Starting the proceedings were the talented band VENUS GRRRLS who gave a great performance. For those in the audience that had never heard of VENUS GRRRLS tonight was a great introduction to these five musicians from Leeds, who come together to create something that impresses. Their set certainly was well received as the room began to fill up with Saint Agnes fans who couldn’t help but at least nod along to the songs. The singer and rhythm guitarist Grace Kelly has a powerful voice that gripped the crowd and held their attention. Unfortunately, the 30 minutes set didn’t feel nearly long enough and they left the audience craving more. 9/10
Haggard Cat were up next; a troublesome twosome, Tom Marsh on drums and Matt Reynolds on guitar and vocals. The Nottingham-based duo are a bit like Marmite you either love them or hate them, in this case, the audience mostly appeared to love them. Full of adrenaline they took their role in warming up the crowd for the main act very seriously and were determined to get people dancing and a mosh pit going. They succeeded in this goal and as their set came to a close Marsh announced, “I love being in a band, it’s dead cool!” as a mosh pit opened up. It was obvious that they did love what they do from their energetic performance. 7/10
The stage lit up red and what seemed like an extremely long build-up ensued before finally some silhouettes were seen crossing the stage. As the crowd whooped and cheered the lights changed and there was Saint Agnes ready to go off, which they did immediately. They launched into Daughter Of Lucifer and the crowd went wild.
Kitty A Austen is centre stage and the crowd are hanging off her every word as she tells them to enjoy themselves, “enjoy yourselves, whenever you get the opportunity because you don’t know what’s around the corner.” she demands before moving on to the next song. Guitarist Jon James Tufnell and is equally as charismatic as Austen and with the help of bassist Ben Chernitsky and drummer Andy Head they make it all look effortless despite the sweat dripping off them.
With so much energy so early on in the set, it’s obvious this is going to be a good one, a night to say “I was there” about. The band knock out song after song and the audience is treated to the most sublime shredding of guitars in The Meanest Little Kid In Town. Nobody is getting tired as the energy stays top level and a few songs later the sing-along hook of And They All Fall Down has everyone shouting at the top of their lungs as Austen approaches the barrier.
Just one-track later Austen reveals that the band do not do encores they simply play every song with all they have and it’s that bittersweet moment of the night. A moment when you know the crowd are about to go wild but also the show is about to end. For their final song, they chose Brother and Austen crowd-surfed in one last moment of madness. The evening was so much fun and the band gave such a feisty yet professional performance that it’s obvious they’re going places. By places we mean bigger and bigger rooms as word about their brilliance is bound to spread throughout the scene. 10/10
Written By: Cat Wiltshire
Photos By: Stu Garneys (Brighton, 29th October 2021)
