“I listen to other bands. I’d take the Pepsi Challenge with any of them.”
Damien Sayell, frontman of Bristol five-piece The St Pierre Snake Invasion, has never been shy about extolling the virtues of his band. Playing the role of The Brian Jonestown Massacre to IDLES’ Dandy Warhols, they are a band that knows they are very good indeed, but have never seen the commercial success that their unquestioned talent deserves.
As they have matured, one gets the sense that they have embraced their place in the musical pantheon, and have become a better and more confident band for it. The music they love is loud, and experimental, and challenging, and that stuff doesn’t generally fill stadiums. If there was ever a sense of resentment about that, though, it has been replaced by a sense of pride in the quality of music they are making. They love it, and that is all that matters.
Recent third album, Galore, was certainly the work of a band at its creative height. It displayed all the elements that made its predecessor Caprice Enchanté one of the best albums of 2019 – fearsome hardcore riffs, wild tempo and time signature changes, and wide vocal ranges – but with the addition of electronic sound and some real genuine tender moments.
Tonight, we see this added nuance added to the Snake Invasion live show, and, a little surprisingly, it is all the better for it. Historically, their shows have been wild affairs, with this author having witnessed Sayell almost being speared head-first into the floor of the Exchange in Bristol in 2019 during an ill-advised ceiling walk. Even crazier, he called out his own wife for excessive chattering during the band’s set at the Crofters Rights earlier that year. As any married man can attest, that’s generally pretty much akin to signing your own death warrant.
Fatherhood appears to have mellowed Sayell, though, and tonight the band emerge in suits, looking very sharp indeed. This is mirrored by the performance, which is measured but no less powerful, a perfect presentation of Galore.
They open with the brilliant ‘Kracked Velvet’, a fabulous slice of hardcore math-rock. Like ‘Carroll A. Deering’ from the previous record, it contains at least three separate sections, veering from tender melancholy to full-on juggernaut metal without missing a beat. Equally good is recent single, ‘The Overlook’, characterised by the harmonic riffs in the verses and the anguished lyrics in the chorus.
The songs from Galore really benefit from the addition of live synthesised sound, which is layered really nicely into the performance, particularly on recent single ‘That There’s Fighting Talk‘, which receives a slightly unlikely introduction as a techno song. Not sure about that, but then, not sure there’s a category that has been invented yet that fits this one.
One thing that has definitely not changed is the tightness of the performance, which is faultless. One gets the sense that these guys spend a LOT of time in the rehearsal room before a tour. Considering the complexity of some of their music, they make it look very easy indeed. Some of the guitar work on the new album is quite astonishing. Clearly a band that care very deeply about their art, and know each other very well.
The band prove that they can still go balls-out with the best of them, though, on ‘To Sleep Well’, a song that brings to mind Seattle math-rockers The Ruby Doe. Fierce and angular, with a guitar line that sounds like an alarm going off, this is among the heaviest tracks the band has done, and the crowd love it.
Probably the most impressive moment of the night, though, is the band’s song about parenthood, ‘Apex Prey’. If there is any moment that sums up the TSPSI’s new confidence on this album, then this is it. The reprise in the chorus – “You count your blessings, and I count the days” – is incredibly powerful, and watching tonight’s show next to my son, it gave me goosebumps.
Despite having seen TSPSI a number of times before, and always enjoyed it, tonight is by far the best show I have seen by them. They really have hit a new level on Galore, and while it probably won’t turn them into superstars, it will certainly confirm to their loyal fanbase, and themselves, that they remain among the very best at what they do.
