Salad & Heavy Salad, The Eagle Inn. 9th December 2022

It’s my last gig of a very busy year and it’s a weird one. Tonight in a venue I’ve not been to in years. The Eagle Inn is a lot smaller than I remember and it’s bloody freezing too. I’m gonna have to bounce around a bit. Finishing up 2022 it’s a cheeky double bill featuring Salad and Heavy Salad (see what they did there). The latter kick things off as I huddle next to the radiator. They’re on home turf, brimming with confidence and blast out funky psychedelic indie pop rock, with harmonies. That sounds like it could be my kinda thing, but they lean on the indie pop a bit too much to light my touch-paper. It’s a bit batshit. The singer is wearing a bear hood, that’s both ridiculous and pretty practical. There’s some good stuff though, especially when they delve into heavier garage psyche territory. Some songs are a bit of a hard sell for me, but seriously, when they lock in to something, they’re bloody great! There’s a lot going on and even if I’m not bowled over, they’re fun to watch. Truthfully though I’m here for Salad. I never caught them in the 90s and I’m not sure what to expect. Both bands are introduced by an unusual gentleman called Jonathan. I can’t explain why, but again it’s fun and adds to the sense that this is almost more of a happening than a gig. Right from the get go Salad are great and an early appearance of ‘Granite Statue’ sounds huge. Marijne sounds fantastic, the band sound fantastic, the sound in here is decent too for such a small space, trapped in by all this brickwork. I wore out my tape of Drink Me , but I’ll admit I didn’t venture much further and there’s quite a lot of the set I don’t know. Think blistering indie bangers though and you’re there. ‘Your Ma’ is a cracker. Blistering bass and scratchy guitars. ‘Your Face’ slows things down before things get rowdy again, the stage struggles to contain Marijne. It’s a big sound with plenty of the quiet/loud dynamic, which Marijne’s vocals match with raucous rasps giving way to soaring beauty. There’s new songs too, but the twin assault of stuff like ‘Drink the Elixir’ and ‘Motorbike to Heaven’ is what I’m after. It seems weird to see them at a venue like this, but a real treat. As far as I know there’s no more dates in the diary, but keep an eye out, they’re worth catching, maybe even more so while they’re playing more intimate shows.