Live Gig- April 19, Ant Hill in Leicester
Ant Hill, an upcoming four-piece band from Leicester played at The Big Difference on April 19th, headlining with the presence of two support acts.
The band themselves make post-punk music, and are influenced by bands such as Fontaines D.C., The Cure, etc. The drummer, Sam, also mentioned in an interview to have been inspired by legends such as Chad Smith from Red Hot Chilli Peppers and John Bonham from Led Zeppelin within the drumming aspect of playing in the band.
The venue, The Big Difference, displays itself beautifully: having both a main, a second floor and a long-stretching basement which is used primarily for the performances. The sound quality provided was crisp and the area within the venue had way more than enough room to host every person that attended that night. For a relatively small venue, the place hosts these performances perfectly.
The night started with the first act at 8pm, a band called Plastic Circus playing a great set to kickstart the night, filling the room with a lively atmosphere. They played lots and lots of original songs, a favourite being ‘Pride & Joy’ and a cover of The Stooges ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’ that the whole crowd danced along to. The band are planning to release their original songs, which many are very excited to see happen. To find out more about their band, you can find their instagram here.
The second act, a band called Dum Language, played next and continued the life of the night through the songs they played, some being ‘Call u back’ and ‘Intro & Dominos’ which I likened to, were very impressively played and fully engaged the audience. To find out more about their band, you can find their instagram here.
Both support acts fully reflected the post-punk and alternative vibe of the night, perfectly representing the headliner which played at around 10pm.
Ant Hill themselves played a full set of original songs (setlist printed below, with ‘Boys In The Better Land’ by Fontaines D.C. also played), along with a cover and an exciting encore to end the night. Through this set the crowd kept up a lively mood, complete with a messy mosh pit that formed a couple songs into the performance. The night attracted more and more people in as the bands played, creating an overall lively and welcoming atmosphere. In an interview, the band let us know how they had originally met, the singer and guitarist Jack claiming to have found out the band through knowing the drummer Sam’s brother and it evolving from there- a blast from the past as well with the mention of an original band, before Ant Hill, called ‘Flare’. In terms of Ant Hill’s making, ‘It just came about’.
To hear more about the band and how they enjoy creating and playing music, some bits from their interview of the night with us is put below. Read their insights! To find out general information, their instagram is linked here.
Q: What’s your favourite part of performing live as a band?
A: ‘I think it’s the sense of family really – we’re really like an Anthill family. And we like the attention we get. We like frequenting local pubs when we’re finished. Jack loves it. That’s his favourite part.’ – Sam (Drummer)
Q: How have the venue’s treated you as a band?
A: ‘Pretty good – The Big Difference where we are now is probably our favourite venue. They always treat us well and we’ve always had good gigs here. All the others in Leicester have been good too though.‘ – Lenny (Guitarist)
‘They vary a little in terms of quality of sound – sometimes the sound can be a bit ropey… but all in all they treat us well.’ – Sam (Drummer)
Q: Where would you suggest locally for live music?
A: ‘The Big Difference is probably the best for a good night. They’ve got good venue, good beer, good vibe with the people. Probably the Fire Bug after that – the sound is a little bit loud but it’s a great night out. There’s some amazing venues in Leicester – you could name lots of them, you could name OMC… some really small venues that are great for young bands. Really we need something a little bit bigger. Something between here at the Big Difference and the O2.’ – Adam (Bassist)
Q: Do things always go smoothly at gigs?
A: ‘We were quite inexperienced…all things considered I think our first gig probably went as well as it could. We definitely have a lot more confidence now, there’s more confidence in our playing – we were nervous, we didn’t know what we were doing, we’d never done a sound check before. We just kind of put things together, did a short set – that’s started things off and now we’ve got quite a busy night.’ – Jack (Singer and Rhythm Guitarist)
Q: How do you guys go about making new music?
A: ‘We all bring something to the table but it’s mainly me and Jack making something in our bedrooms and then recording it and showing the guys, then working from there.’ – Lenny (Guitarist)
Q: Are you guys planning on making any new music any time soon?
A: ‘We’re planning on recording soon. Yeah so we should have an EP out at some point potentially next year. There will be something out this year too – we won’t tell you what’s going to be on that yet though.’ – Adam (Bassist)
‘There’s about four songs that we’ve been working on – we’ve got some ideas going in there. We’re going to get recording those as soon as possible.’ – Jack (Singer and Rhythm Guitarist)
Q: What is the ideal venue to play – what’s the goal?
A: ‘In all honesty I’d say Rock City – I f***ing love Rock City and would really like to play Rock City.’ – Adam (Bassist)
‘Festivals we were looking at, something in the summer maybe. Then stadiums would be after that – that’s the aim to get to hundreds and thousands of people is the goal really.’ – Sam (Drummer)
‘I think some big summer festivals would be cool like Glastonbury – but we’ve gotta work our way up to that but I think some big festivals.’ – Lenny (Guitarist)
‘I’d like to play O2 at some point but I think Windmill, Brixton, I think about our influences and the bands that came out of there. To play and follow in their footsteps would be cool.’ – Jack (Singer and Rhythm Guitarist)
