HOT WAX at Voodoo Daddy's Showroom, Timber Hill, Norwich, 2023

This article was first published on Grapevine Live! 1st May 2023

A Breath of Fresh South Coast Air from Hot Wax

Hot Wax carry a creative energy that the tedium of battling through winters in English coastal towns often provokes. Second on the bill at Voodoo Daddy’s Showroom on the Spring Bank Holiday, Hot Wax from Hastings, turn in an excellent short set.

Casting aside traditional song structures, in the way Patti Smith, Sonic Youth and PJ Harvey brought poetry into art rock, Hot Wax use pace and variation of tone, pitch and rhythm to net listeners. Choruses are used sparingly, but when launched, these are delivered with the fury of winter breakers smashing onto the shingle shore. I felt myself step back a little, not wanting to be pulled off shore by the emotional backwash, as the power surged and fell back into another pulsing bass line, a line hung with fascinating vocal lures to keep me hooked.

Hot Wax have the edge like the jagged teeth of a double-handed timber saw. The sharp guitar of Tullalah Sim-Savage is balanced by the counter-weight Lola Sam’s creative bass work. They pull and push against each other, cutting their songs into impressive shapes. It is great to listen to the pair dancing through the numbers of a half-hour set.

A Thousand Times is an excellent song. It is the title of their first EP and demonstrates the quality of their musicianship and song-writing craft. The weft and weave of this number include a beautifully embroidered guitar solo, as its motif. Well worth digging this one out.

Drumming with these two must demand a lot of Alfie Sayers. No crash bang, wallop, bash of cymbals for him. The drummer’s contribution here is akin to jazz drumming. Sensitive to changes of pace, diminuendo and crescendo, Sayers does a great job at doing what good drummers should do, stress the beat, emphasise the tempo. It should never be about the drummer. Good drummers, like football referees, should pass by largely unnoticed.

The songs come from somewhere deep inside. Barbie (Not Yours) is a cracker. The song starts all lovey-dovey and then leaps and spits into more than a simple ‘No’, but a full-throated rejection of relationship role-playing, coupledom expectations. I am not your Barbie and I don’t want to go to your stupid party. The song has wit with venom, and the chorus is delivered with the  anger of The Beastie Boys on a very angry setting.

The set finishes with Rip It Out. A paean to the pain of a relationship that, though past, was the best. Tullalah and Lola chorus magnificently as they sign off. Hot Wax were the most artistic, interesting and engaging musicians on stage this evening. Touring with The Pearl Harts will no doubt have given them a few pointers about the business, but Hot Wax need no tips when it comes to composing interesting and engaging songs and putting on a show.

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