Following a very enjoyable set at the 2024 Edinburgh Psych Fest, young Hastings’ rockers HotWax are tasked with delivering a headlining spot that belies their young age.
Any road bound band is going to spend some time debating; how much do you talk? How much do you tune? How much time do you spend swapping guitars?
For the youthful trio, there’s an additional hurdle.
If you only have one 28-minute album, how do you ensure a crowd who have come to see a headline set go home happy?
Rather than bulk things out with a Moby Dick-seized drum solo, the young trio’s answer seems to be: play everything you have in record time and see if the audience can keep up.
There’s a few tricks up their sleeve too. Their three most popular tracks on Spotify didn’t even make the debut album but Drop, Treasure and Rip It Out are all resurrected here as part of a 17 track set that still only lasts a little over an hour.
Before that thesis is put to the test though, there’s time for a short set from Jeanie and the White Boys.
Fronted by Jeannie Crystal from garage psych provocateurs The Moonlandingz, this five piece riff their way through a short set of stomping glam and garage churn.
The songs are pretty rudimentary but they’re delivered with bags of attitude. Before Jeanie has even introduced herself, she is already writhing on the floor.
“The things I seem to be most inspired by are revenge and violence” she drawls as the band lurch into a damning takedown of an ex-boyfriend called “Don’t look now, Satan is over there.”
Proclaiming her appreciation for Edinburgh she admits “We didn’t go up Arthur’s seat, we just went to the bottom and had a cigarette.” Given that most of the band look like they have just woken up, that’s perhaps not all that surprising.
Still as Jeannie shadow boxes her way through undeniable highlight The Boo Hoo Girls, her nicotine stained yelp is surprisingly compelling.
Tonight’s headliners are onstage sharply to plug in. Last year’s punchy debut Hot Shock was a real ripper, with a first-thought best-thought sensibility that dovetailed with the trio’s youthful energy. Thankfully it was also packed with garage and power pop hooks that seemed to draw on decades of bands like Hole, The White Stripes and Royal Blood.
Singer Tallulah Sim-Savage has a touch of the Karen O to her, and while HotWax don’t have a calling card of the calibre of Maps or Gold Lion just yet, they rocket through the opening act of their set until the walls are practically dripping and the crowd, mostly at least a generation older than the band, are struggling to keep up.
Not every song works – it’s fair to say the slower material is a mixed bag – and the encore relies on a pretty well-trodden selection of stage moves but the trio have great riffs aplenty and huge potential to level up.
It’s a solid effort that’s appreciated by a packed crowd. Hot stuff indeed.
Words: Max Sefton
Pictures: Calum Mackintosh @ayecandyphotography