Sleepy Sun live review
There’s a fair chance that Bret Constantino, lead singer of Sleepy Sun, owns a couple of Led Zeppelin DVDs. And probably a full-length mirror to practice his Plant-inspired snake-hipped swagger, too. It’s also a good bet that Rachael Williams, the band’s other vocalist and flower-power seducer, has studied a few Bjork clips, given her mesmerising, shamanic stage presence. But it doesn’t matter that the front pair’s moves are derivative, any more than it matters that Sleepy Sun’s music is deeply in debt to early 70s psych and heavy metal. What matters is that the difference between hearing Sleepy Sun on record and seeing the same band perform live is huge – especially after their slightly tepid debut LP – and that makes for a particularly satisfying show.
The pleasing discrepancy is, in part, due to volume – the band’s swampy, Sabbathy, slow-grinding riffage is doled out in such carefully measured, spaced-out rations that they sound far heavier than their album suggests. But complementing so well the aural assaults and Williams’ remarkable vocals is all the fearsome headbanging, rainbow facepaint and hedonistically sexy rocking out that a plastic disc can never offer. On this evidence, Sleepy Sun are to be seen and heard.
