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Oct 25, 2023 By Nick Roseblade Photography by Nick Roseblade Web Exclusive

Do you want to go to a gig?

Um, maybe

It’s at the Green Door this Tuesday

Who’s playing?

Call Me Franco

Any good?

Yeah, could be fun.

How much?

£3

I’M IN!

And so, it begun…

There is something exciting about going to see three bands you know next to nothing about. Firstly. you have no expectations. Nothing to compare them too as they are all new to you. Secondly, you might see something exceptional and lastly, who doesn’t want to see three bands for £3? It’s like 90s prices!

Brighton’s Green Door Store was busy when I arrived, considering it was a wet and windy Tuesday night. Always a good sign and when Bones Ate Afra took the stage it was even busier. Their set was a love letter to post-teenage angst, filthy guitars and even dirtier basslines. Frontman, and bassist, Arthur Wilson, had a vocal range that jumped from guttural howls to melodious yelps. “Valentine” was the highlight of the set. An instrumental that was both catchy and sordid. Near the end the band were joined by rapper Dread.FM. His appearance made the band sound like The Kennedy Soundtrack, or a heavier Dust Junkys. As the feedback faded out, the band left the stage.

Mission Creep were up next. The band were all dressed in black and melted into Green Door’s black background. After a few minutes of playing atmospheric Pink Floyd/progressive metal singer Amber Thompson took to the stage. Unlike the rest of the band, she was dressed in a white shirt and neon orange dress over it. This made Thompson our focal point. She stood out immediately. Then she started singing. Her vocals were able to keep up with the Porcupine Tree sounding backing track, but there was a soulful lilt there too. As their set progressed my mind started to wonder a bit. Each member of the band felt like a virtuoso of their instruments, especially guitarist Angus Potter-Irwin, but there was something missing. In their mission to make their music sound flawless, it was lacking a sense of urgency. This sounds like a weird slight, but it was too slick. There were times during Bones Ate Afra’s set when it felt like it could all come crashing down. This made the music exciting, but here it felt like Mission Creep were showing off how great they were, but not really delivering anything other than a show reel for their greatness. The songs played with time signatures and Dan Haysom’s drumming was flawless, but having three different time signatures in each song was slightly distracting from Thompson’s lyrics. Near the end of the set Potter-Irwin was just tapping notes for whole songs. This was impressive at first but to play a whole song like this made the trick redundant. I was craving a few bars of chords or blast of feedback. When Mission Creep left the stage, I felt entertained but, not satisfied.

The mood was high when Call Me Franco took to the stage. Immediately they launched into frenzied instrumental surf-psych rock. Guitarist Ernesto Diaz was a monster on the guitar. His riffs were incendiary. There was a similarity between his playing and that of Potter-Irwin, but here Diaz was unrestrained and playing for the sheer joy of it. As the band played it was hard to know where one song ended, and another started. After they’ve been playing what felt like seven-minutes, but could have been fifteen, the ‘song’ ended. The crowd exploded in applause and chants of “Ernesto you sexy bastard”. Drummer Fin Anderson and bassist Adham ‘Franco’ Armenti did their best to keep up with Diaz. The music ranged from surf to bossa nova, metal, Tropicália and classic four-chord rock. It was giddying to see Diaz just play. Their final song was new single “Vildanden”. This was off the scale on how blasé the ambition was but Call Me Franco pulled it off. And then some. After they finished chants of “One more song! One more song! One more song!” started. After a terse back and forth with the sound engineer that ended with “Oh, fuck it, just play!” Call Me Franco played a slightly No Wave cover of the Primus cover “Jerry was a Race Car Driver” and then it was all over. Time to brave the elements, and the post-pub streets of Brighton.

Just to clarify Call Me Franco and Mission Creep do different things. Musically they are different bands, but they’re both based around virtuosity. Call Me Franco make serious music, but they don’t take themselves too seriously. They have a blast on stage and the audience can feel it. Mission Creep push the seriousness, so the music is too earnest. This isn’t to say its bad, its not, but if they reigned in trying to emulate their heroes a bit and used the tapping, and multiple time signatures per songs, sporadically the music would be elevated. But what do I know. I think the Ramones debut album is one of the finest moments in the 20th Century and that Mastodon never surpassed ‘Leviathan’.

There is some for heading out to a gig on a rainy October evening midweek to see some bands that you don’t really know. For £3 we definitely got our money’s worth. And then some. So, the moral of this story is, if you see something going on near you take a punt of it. You might have as much fun as this. Each band was well practiced, tight and put on a good show. In their own way. Small venues, like the Green Door Store, need your support and attending gigs like this means that they’ll be able to stay open and put on more gigs like this. You know, for up-and-coming bands. Don’t stay in. Take a chance and if Call Me Franco your town, GO SEE THEM!