Saturday nights in Clwb Ifor Bach are more often than not a treasure trove for some of the city’s most exciting gigs, and this weekend was no exception, with the bottom floor playing host to the enthralling Midlands-based Cauldron. Having garnered a reputation for brutally brilliant live shows, Cardiff marked the end of their weekender tour celebrating their debut album Suicide in the City.
With the album having helped the band to entrench themselves further into the heights of the UK’s fruitful scene, it certainly something of a surprise to see that the room wasn’t packed out. This clearly wasn’t something that the band were going to let get in the way of demonstrating to those present exactly why they’re one of the UK’s most important bands.
Keen to show off much of the material from their newest album, the set contained some of the band’s newer tracks, starting the set with ‘Falling Snow (Seattle 2)’, ‘Off Script”’, and ‘I Forget You Existed (Seattle 1)’. While the room might not have been filled from the front to the back, those who did come made the most of the dancefloor’s expanse at every opportunity.
‘Lonely Useless Orbit’ was a clear highlight from the set, which saw Killing Me Softly‘s Jonno step up to fill in for World of Pleasure‘s guest vocals. Despite the intensive nature of the songs, the band still had enough in them to provide plenty of banter in the interlude, including a well-deserved shout out for Cardiff’s very own Cathays.
Bringing a set to a close with an older track, ‘The Last Words’, the band thanked the crowd before immediately mingling with the crowd at the merch table.
For me personally, there are two things to take away from the night’s show. The first is that Cauldron are almost definitely set to grow even further, there’s simply no doubt about that. But the second thing to take away is that not all of the country’s best acts are found gracing the stages of arenas, sometimes they’re found in the bottom floor of your local venue.
