Spoonfest 3
a review by Tom Girard
Twenty years on from their first formation, and a week shy of eleven years since the band’s later incarnation called it a day in a ‘full time’ capacity, Teaspoonriverneck returned to stage at St. James Guernsey as part of the third instalment of their own mini-festival, SpoonFest.
In keeping with the previous two events (which happened at The Fermain Tavern back in 2012 and 2013) the line up was absolutely packed with acts chosen by ‘The Spoons’, this time around including Play Nice, Hollie Thorne, Semu Cà and SkySkrapers, while music before, between and after the bands came from Ark Sounds (aka Rob and Karla Roussel).
Play Nice started things off and quickly confirmed posts on social media that this would be their last gig, which was a shame as they’ve been something of a low key highlight over the last ten months or so and this transpired to be their best show yet.
From the start all four members seemed far more relaxed as they played through their impressive set of post-punk and goth tinged indie rock with Maisie Bisson (bass), Charlie Spicer (drums) and Trystan Koyupinar (guitar) playing off one another while Billy Devaney (guitar and vocals) had something of a Kurt Cobain like demeanour, mixed with hints of Fontaines DC’s Grian Chatten, while looking every bit the rock star behind his dark glasses at the front (though he still was clearly having fun with the rest of the band too).