Pepper Presents: Goan Dogs/Common Tongues/Jealous Michael

The Winchester, Bournemouth

Pepper is a phone app created by a couple of local innovators to help music fans find out what’s on and when on the various local music scenes around the country. The app started on a small scale and has steadily grown with lots of interest from all areas. Pepper’s Dave and Crisi have started a regular monthly music night here at the Winchester showcasing the best in up-coming bands that impress them on their travels.

Tonight’s line up consists of three bands that I have not seen or even heard of before and I deliberately did not do any pre gig research just to have a clear mind on what I see just for a change. The first band to take to the stage is “Jealous Michael” a four piece from the South of England who comprise of George (Vox/Guitar), Coco (Vocals), Bex (Bass) and Simon (Drums). Their music is a funky Blues style of Rock with effect- laden guitars creating dreamy soundscapes. The male and female harmonies combine well to give an interesting edge to their sound. With songs like “Ever Blue” and the excellent “Lighthouses & Alleyways” their music provides some great early entertainment, giving a perfect start to this evening of new discoveries.

Jealous Michael 1–2

Common Tongues have made the two hour trip to Bournemouth tonight from Brighton and from the first song I totally knew it was worthwhile. These guys are about pushing boundaries and experimentation. They don’t worry about genres, they seem to want to create their own. They would be equally at home at a Rock or a Folk festival. The band combine the usual bass, drums, guitars with violin, synthesisers, piano and mandolin. They kick off with the rather apt song “Pioneer” which really gets the audience’s full attention. There are Pink Floyd-style vocals with each member of the 5 piece singing at the same time, to create an extremely coherent wall of beautiful sound. The performance is very well rehearsed and the band seem to work well as a creative unit, with great songs such as “Dogs” and the brilliant “Cold As The Devil”. A very memorable performance, lets hope we can see some more of them in the future.

Common Tongues 1–2

The last band seem to take a long time to take the stage and sadly by the time they start, some of tonight’s audience have already left as it was well past 11pm on a school night! I am glad I stayed though as Goan Dogs from Bristol arrived on stage with a sound that also really impresses from the start. The Pepper staff certainly know good music when they hear it. The music starts with the unique sound of a looping trumpet played live. The band have a sort of Country Americana vibe with some Latino-style percussion which really spices things up. As with Common Tongues there are some really powerful and moving, full band-sung harmonies. They mix guitar effects with keyboards and in places more trumpet to create songs like “Better off Dead” and their catchy new single “Running”. Front man Luke St Leger has a very distinctive, memorable and well delivered vocal that really makes the final band of the evening stand out.

Goan Dogs 1–2

An evening of 3 great bands who all are very different in their own way, showing fantastic potential for the future. I am looking forward very much to the next Pepper event. Keep yourself up to date with the local gigs using the PEPPER app here.

Videos