Gig Review: Ivies Live! At The Holy GrAle Ft. Moonstag and Happy Hour

Traipsing down Crossgate five minutes past the hour, I found the psych-rock coming through my earbuds overscored by a slower, more colourful melody which had begun creeping up the street. The song was ‘Easy’ by Commodores, and the band, as I learned upon ducking into a dimly lit Holy GrAle, was Happy Hour. Despite my early arrival, Canary Records’ first event of 2024 was already in full swing.

Over the hum of chattering gig-goers, Durham’s newest musical five-piece took us through a colourful setlist of pop and soul hits, transitioning from the jaunty romanticism of Bruno Mars’ ‘That’s What I Like’ to a slowed, emotional rendition of ‘Valerie’ by Amy Winehouse. As the pub grew dense, the group brought us back-to- back 2002 classics ‘This Love’ and ‘Sunday Morning’—it wouldn’t be a Happy Hour set without Maroon 5’, explained frontwoman Maria Bragna. The latter cover was full of unexpected delights: bassist Aaron got behind the mic to provide some plucky callbacks while saxophonist Chris and vocalist Maria entered into a playful call-and- response rhythm of their own. This persisted through ‘Virtual Insanity’ and ‘Put Your Records On’, until the band swapped exuberance for seductiveness with an expressive return to Bruno Mars. This time, it was Yimika’s soulful drumming and Ollie’s hypnotizing keyboard runs that set the pace. Sandwiched by unaccompanied, melodic percussion, the group’s version of ‘Leave the Door Open’ perfectly embodied what I’ve found to be the band’s greatest strength: synergy. That is, with a dash of chaos. The team then rushed through a spirited performance of MIKA’s ‘Grace Kelley’, whispered ‘we’re leaving’ into the microphone, and, with that, disappeared into the crowd. Classic Happy Hour.

Picking back up with an aggressively loud drum test and a few original songs in tow, the Holy GrAle veterans that comprise Moonstag assumed position. No introduction was required: we got a sense of their sound from the get-go with the intoxicating ‘Walking in The Woods’. Quickly, so as not to squash the momentum of a room filled with reverberating synth waves and newly realised anticipation, vocalist Ethan Harrison explained the inspiration behind the next track: ‘This next one’s about me and my friend Joe being stuck inside during Covid . . . oh what a year it was, oh what a year it wasn’t’. I don’t have the technological know-how to explain it better than this: keyboardist Dana’s playing took me back inside. At least that’s what my notes from the night say.

Up next the group made me an offer I couldn’t refuse: three Mac Demarco covers, back-to-back, without pause. Moonstag buckled down with ‘For the First Time’ and ramped back with ‘Heart to Heart’, as guitarist Joe Hawthorne and bassist Aaron Maurice attempted to replicate Mac’s characteristically laid-back and spacey instrumentation. Oh, did I mention Aaron Maurice of Happy Hour is also Aaron Maurice of Moonstag? A true veteran of the Durham live music circuit — and the following cover of ‘Chamber of Reflection’ proved that he’s not the only one. In a performance dedicated to the ‘bohemian deviants, creeps, and weirdoes’ in the room, drummer Ollie Brunt swapped places with Harrison, taking hold of the lead guitar and stepping behind the mic. Remember Thom Yorke’s legendary vocals on the bridge of Creep? That climactic, gut-wrenching ‘run, run, run’ before the melancholic composition of the outro sets in? Ollie replicated it perfectly. Perhaps he should find a fifth (fifth!!!!) band to do the vocals for.

If you’ve ever heard Ivies debut single ‘sick for a week’ on Spotify, you’ll be familiar with drummer Ed Jobburn’s classic 1 2 3 4 count-in. If you haven’t, well, you can always catch it live at the start of their new-and-improved setlist. That’s right: this new year, Ivies is jumping right into their biggest hit. You’d figure that means they must have a few more tricks in store for us . Now, in my opinion, the best part of an Ivies gig happens when Alice Bird steps behind the keyboard. After all, that’s when we get songs like ‘semi-detached’ and ‘therapy’. Ushering us into Bird’s windswept world with the first, Jobburn swapped his sticks for percussion mallets to produce an uncharacteristic wispiness as the rest of the band fell to a hush. The song was quiet, restrained; then, as Kiko comes into play, assertive and emotional. As the players all joined in and made their way to the chorus, the song crescendo-ed, fell quiet again, and finally, reached a striking fever pitch. It is then that we begin to understand Cole’s hilarious introduction to the tune: “I don’t want to be biased, but this one f****** slaps”. Now we just have to imagine what it might sound like with some added violin. The band left us with ‘therapy’, which diverges and swells in all the same ways, and leaves us gutted for all the right reasons. I may or may not have heard its recording at 2:00 am in Toronto while Cole and I were waiting on a delayed plane back to Durham, and it may or may not be one of a few releases you’ll want to keep an eye on this year.

By Lianna De Bartolo