Courting Take On Casablanca

COURTING COURTING COURTING COURTING

at The Great Escape Festival

Words by Ben Left

COURTING, a Liverpool based four piece who take the sardonic post-punk of Sports Team and pair it with the raucous, brash energy of early Libertines, are one of those bands where if you know, you know. Not everyone who poured into Casablanca- Brighton’s student-friendly, self-styled ‘jazz club’- to see rave-pop diva Rose Gray did know, it seemed, as lots of them rushed to leave after her set on the same stage that Courting would take to a mere thirty minutes later.

In that time though, some new faces started to filter into the room, and before long the venue was rammed, those who knew waiting in eager anticipation for the carefully crafted carnage that was about to unfold. When the boys did appear, it has to be said that they took their time setting up and making sure everything sounded just right, and although by that point I was getting tired, it was worth the wait. “Can we play?”, asked frontman Sean Murphy-O’Neil, perhaps sensing the slight sense of frustration in the room. And without further ado, the band launched into a thrilling rendition of Football, making a right (good) racket and waking me up with a start.

From there it was a non-stop, full-on attack on the eardrums, and one which the crowd loved every single second of. From the sprawling and sarcastic Crass, performed as ever with bucket loads of energy- and the song which saw O’Neil spitting out the hilarious reference “I think me and Kanye might still have sex” with a self-aware smile- to the cutting, catchy Popshop, there were plenty of highlights. Infact, the whole sweat soaked, almost rock-rave like experience was one huge highlight, and new single Tennis was no exception. Starting relatively slow with a simple but addictive bass hook, the song built nicely before exploding with its chorus, O’Neil standing right at the edge of the stage, leaning on the barrier and screaming “I’m not some piggybank, you can’t just piggyback off me/ There was trade involved, I was paying you to love me”, with a pessimistic passion that really brought the crowd to life, before the chorus caved in on itself and transitioned back into its moodier, more compelling verses. That was, until the band unexpectedly screeched into a note-perfect rendition of Arctic Monkeys’ iconic R U Mine riff, playing the snippet of one of AM’s defining tracks before seamless switching back to Tennis. It was an amusing, slightly surreal moment, perfectly demonstrating that amidst the post-punk anger of Courting, there is plenty of warm wit to balance things out. This was also evident with Popshop, in which O’Neil assured the audience that “If you stream The Shape Of You, you’re going to hell”.

Perhaps the best song of the gig was the title track of their debut EP, Grand National, which the band belted out midway through the set, much to the delight of even the most casual Courting fans (after all, the song is their most popular on Spotify). They followed this up with Slow Burner- which included an all-out, audience participation cowbell solo- and ended proceedings with the funny, scathing and furiously exciting David Byrne’s Badside.

As the band started packing up, a couple of impressed punters asked for the setlist. Of course, the guys obliged. It’s a telling indicator of the direction they’re headed- with debut album Guitar Music due in September, Courting look set to really take off in 2022, proving that- even if the title is most likely a little dig at everyone who see Oasis as the last good band ever- guitar music is alive and well.