Packed venues, crowds gathered outside asking for spare tickets and a unbridled fever that flows through the crowds gathered – it can only be a moment of special significance. For Sea Girls, tonight is only the third headline show they’ve done in the capital and yet it’s a gridlock – sold out and in demand, there’s amble reason why, and Omeara gets the pleasure to play host to a band who are already kicking at the door of something unique.
It’s easy to dismiss a four-piece indie bands as simply one of many, but Sea Girls have something gloriously special under their sleeves. Lead by the prowling and captivating figure of frontman Henry Camamile, tonight is a box office smash of the ambition and stages they want to common. That blending mix of murmuring power and chills ring through ‘What For’ and its back and forth splendour, and it’s a mix that immediately makes them stand out in a sea of guitar bands wanting to carve their own nice. Not just ready for crowd-pleasing majesty, they look for the most unexpected highs – ‘Heavenly War’ is a conversational touch that builds and builds into an infectious highlight, while ‘Lost’ triggers moshing bodies and crowds perching on each others shoulders to revel in its gritty realities. It’s in that where Sea Girls become something unlike many other guitar bands out there, able to blend that feeling of being at Knebworth and seeing a band who can change the world but also of a band who are sticking to things on their own terms. They’re a band who should pull acclaim to their front door, with a frontman whose as magnetising as he is real, that perfect mix of a band one with everyday life yet of another league entirely.
Coming back on stage to round out the night with ‘Call Me Out’, tonight feels like a lucky look into a band with a golden future. Anthems read y to be sung along from first note, it’s only when you’re in the presence of Sea Girls that you realise how big they could become. Redefining and owning that idea of what a guitar band can be, a sold-out Omeara is just another bow to their already impressive arsenal. Judging by the roars and cries that call out for more tonight, we’re gonna need a bigger venue to host their next inevitable step.
Sea Girls continue their Dork Live! tour tonight (February 2nd) in Bristol, before calling into Leicester, Manchester, Leeds and Glasgow. Full details on the shows can be found below, with tickets available from here.
FEBRUARY
02 BRISTOL The Exchange
03 LEICESTER The Cookie
08 MANCHESTER Deaf Institute
09 LEEDS Brudenell Community Room
10 GLASGOW King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut
Photos: Patrick Gunning