A Triumphant Return
The venue Room Thirteen finds themselves in is a dark, subterranean room in the bowels of a small bar on a day of - what only can be described as – impending apocalypse levels rain in Bournemouth. A day in which bodies and clothing may have be dampened, but spirit and enthusiasm for seeing one of music's best kept secrets certainly wasn't.
With no stage in the tiny venue, its toes to the monitors and eyeball to eyeball with the band, who prove with their new material and more polished, rounded sound they are undoubtedly for great things.
From the steady drive of opener 'Get On', things start assuredly. Despite their latest album only being released physically for mere days, the small but enthusiastic audience already has each word committed to both head and heart.
Once into the second track 'Wasp's Nest', the band are in full stride. The audience, suitably warmed is now thrown into a throng of flailing limbs and hands on chests shouting out chorus: "My heart is a wasp's nest, And my imagination was the first apple tree" to near vocal-chord shredding volume and passion.
With the set leaning heavily on the band's second album 'The Wages of Fear', Tellison have not fallen into the usual trappings of a band who have just released a sophomore album: that being, the audience having no previous knowledge of what is being played. With the album released on stream several weeks before its physical release, the excitable crowd are all too aware of every word, every nuance, every break in each song.
'Collarbone' and 'Say Silence' - two of the biggest and most anthemic songs from their latest album - again send the crowd into frenzy of angled bodies and fingers pointed skyward in triumph, whilst the sensitive drive of 'Freud Links The Teeth To The Heart' raises embarrassed smiles and glances between singer Stephen Davidson and bassist Andrew Tickell at the faintly ridiculous but wholly sweet lines "My dentist's a girl from France, I fancy off her pants".
Closing with 'Hanover Start Clapping', the jubilance in the air is all too apparent. Strangers grab each other and pogo in unison, drinks are sent jetting high into the air and a lone crowd surfer skims the ceiling of the small room.
Tonight, Tellison reconfirm the powerhouse they are. Yes, they are erudite, intelligent and have a multitude of literary references packed tightly into their songs, but they are also a bloody great band that deserve all the acclaim and plaudits that can be sent their way.
A band made for bigger stages and, more importantly, much bigger things.