I had intended on calling this "A very Basement summer" as I was meant to see them four times in a little over a month, but Reading Festival never happened, and it went down to three in a little over a week. My summer ended up being a little less dedicated to the Ipswich natives as I wanted it to be, but the portion that was was still very much enjoyable. (And full of stupid little stories)

Outside of 2000 Trees, I saw Basement twice during their July run : the first one was at The Haunt, in Brighton, and the other one was at the Tunbridge Wells Forum.

Opening both evening were Swedish indie rockers The Sun Days - an oddly accurate name in Brighton as the temperature had reached new heights. It was twenty-seven degrees, everyone was at the beach, enjoying £1.69 99p flakes and trying not to get mugged by extremely angry seagulls. I was myself sporting an extremely dashing sunburn. 

The Sun Days' music fitted with their name like a house on fire as, to little me, it felt like sunshine and the promise of warm days, summer dresses and chilly cider in a beer garden. It's strange how, sometimes, a band's music feels like the perfect soundtrack to a specific moment, isn't it? If you picture yourself in a garden enjoying the lovely weather, the music in your head, it's The Sun Days. It's this lovely indie rock and it's Lea Rambell's delicate voice, it's their slightly sixties inspired style, and it's nothing else.

Following up were Leeds based Dinosaur Pile-Up. I'd discovered them at 2000 Trees and instantly, I had fallen for their energetic and catchy brand of rock. Their songs are singing along material and gigantic anthem material - isn't it the best feeling when you watch a band live and you can picture them play to thousands and thousands of people who love them? That's a situation I want to find myself in when Dinosaur Pile-Up are playing. It's only been three months and I already want to see them be the biggest band in the world because they have the talent for it, and they have the way of attracting people into their web for it. I mean, after this little tour thing that wasn't a little tour thing, I had one of their newest tracks, Eleven Eleven, stuck in my head for weeks on end, probably to the point of insanity. You need a serious dose of talent to produce songs that can stay stuck in people's head for more than ten minutes.


And finally, Basement.
There's something about Basement that, surprisingly, reminds me of Fatherson - they both share the "old friend and cup of tea" feel. (And I'm not saying that because in Tunbridge Wells, singer Andrew Fisher was, in the most rock n roll fashion, sipping tea out of a mug in between songs) They are one of these bands that immediately make me feel better when I'm down, and even when their songs have really sad lyrics. They just make me feel calm and peaceful.
And they also make me have a little dance (Promise Everything is a jam and a half) and sing along like my life depends on it.

Watching them at the Haunt was something special. The venue was packed, high on adrenaline and on sunshine, there was moshing all over the place, it all felt urgent and intense - in the best way. It felt like everyone just wanted to have the time of their lives, as if they had waited for that gig for ages. (I had. I had booked my tickets with a "if I can't afford any other gigs, at least I'll have Basement" feeling). The atmosphere at Tunbridge Wells was more peaceful, I can remember seeing a big amount of people hanging out with their friends and looking like this was a natural part of their day, there was less urgency in the air.

On stage, both times, the band is delivering its collection of alternative rock tunes with a simplicity that will never fail to amaze me. I had not really have time to analyse this when I saw them supporting Brand New (my most vivid memories of that show are Covet and mostly, Laura diving in a moshpit to rescue her lost leather jacket), but it hit me quite hard at 2000 Trees. This is just a group of very humble guys who, as it happens, likes playing music together and happen to be fairly successful at it. And it's quite striking, especially in this scene where every single band urges you to open this shit up and crowdsurf about ten times per song - Basement don't do that. They just deliver the song and the crowd naturally follows. I think what I've realised is they've built an intimacy with their fanbase that probably has something to do with the whole "old friend and cup of tea" malarkey - they don't need a whole lot of words to communicate with their audience. Music does the job. And that's an absolutely wonderful thing to witness.
Along with how stunningly adorable frontman Andrew Fisher is when he's brought birthday cupcakes on stage in Brighton. As if it needed to be even more of a celebration.
Closing with Pine and Covet is the pinnacle of the urgency, the intensity and the emotion.


You know what? I've joked a million times about bands breaking up and reuniting shortly after, saying they were "doing a Basement". And I'll probably keep making that stupid joke until the end of eternity. But the bottom line is, I'm so happy Basement decided that not playing music wasn't for them.


Both gigs included their little lot of adventures.
The day before the Brighton gig, I was in my bedroom and a new girl staying came in. She saw my Bring Me The Horizon tote bag and we started talking, and it turned out she was in Brighton to see Basement herself. So we decided to go together.

Tunbridge Wells was a whole adventure altogether. I figured it would be an easy one as there is a bus leaving from down the road directly to the heart of Tunbridge Wells. Granted, it takes an hour and a half, but it's not worse than your regular train from London at the end of a gig. The problem is that the last bus back from Tunbridge Wells is at 8pm. I then figured that trains would be easy - if it's an hour and a half on the bus, it has to be shorter on the train. It's only logical.
And it turns out it's not.
It takes two hours and a half on the train and two changes, one in Tonbridge and one in Redhill, to get back to Brighton, and the last time is just after eleven. But it's not like I had a choice, so I went for it.
And then, when I got to Tunbridge Wells, it turns out the venue was late. The guy at the box office (shout out to him for not setting fire to my face as I was probably super annoying asking about stage times every ten seconds) explained to me that the gig was meant to finish just before eleven but even with the venue being late I would probably not have to miss a lot of it.
I had to leave after twenty-five minutes of Basement. Frustrating to say the least.
That being said, when you can attend the entirety of a gig there, the Forum is the cutest venue ever. There are flowers in the toilets, for goodness sake.


This summer wasn't as dedicated to Basement as I'd intended it to be, but I still keep amazing memories from those two days and that gig and a half (or something). Basement are one stunning live band and I'm so glad Laura is a fan - if it wasn't for her, none of this would have happened. I'm strangely sentimental over two gigs during which I didn't even cry. Oh well.