Tellison

Ok, so there are two black teenagers who call themselves The Bots on the stage. They’ve come all the way from LA to support Tellison on tour. Apparently the brothers Mikaiah Lei, 18, and Anaiah Lei, 14, won “best punk artist” at the 2012 something awards somewhere in California. Yes, they’re brothers and it’s very cute watching them running around and bouncing off the walls in a Sunny D-fuelled madness but they’re no Cap’n Jazz.

Then- more American teenagers! The Front Bottoms sound like Blink 182 with an acoustic guitar. My friend tries to persuade me that they sound a bit like Say Anything, but they don’t. They’re shit. “When you go to college what will I do?” Work in Stuckey’s.

However, weirdly, I can completely see the reasoning behind those support acts: everything about Tellison’s music is High school. Remember that week in year 9 when you had to cross your legs all through school because you were so excited about going to the sweat box to see that sixth form band, because Katherine Hardy was going and someone told you she fancied you and you scribbled spastically in your diary about it? That’s the feeling that Tellison have managed to bottle, rocking along a well trodden road somewhere between the cheeky Presidents of the USA and the angry angst of Biffy Clyro, less trod these days than once upon a time. 

The hormonal frenzy is helped by bouncy teenage girls and curly haired boys flinging their fists into the air and singing along to every chorus, even brand new single Freud Links the Teeth to the Heart, a reflective and sugary Mumford & Sons sort of affair. Lead singers Stephen and Peter couldn’t be more anti-hero really, the former bald with big Buddy Holly glasses and the latter moustachioed and bowl-cut, but Stephen looks genuinely ecstatic to be there, unable to wipe the smile from his face and winking and joking with the crowd, melting the collective heart. He even invites everyone to go and hang out with the band at the pub after the gig. Sadly, no one is old enough to go to the pub so everyone calls their mums to come and pick them up.

#Indie-Pop #Islington, The Garage #Tellison #Gigs #Pete Hughes