Superfood at Heaven

By rights, we should be utterly sick of the 90s revival by now. After at least two years of wading through crop tops, scrunchies and Loaded magazine relaunches, it should be nigh-on impossible to mine anything fresh from an era that really wasn’t that long ago. And then you see a band like Superfood, and realise how wrong you are.

Dressed, like his bandmates, in a fairly non-descript black top and trousers, Dom Ganderton isn’t the most visually flashy of frontmen, but he oozes a charisma that mesmerises each of the 300-odd teenage fans crowded in front of him. He and his bandmates career around the stage with the energy of Ash at their youthful peak, complete with the band’s sole female component, bassist Emily Barker, slinking around and gazing out from behind her curtain of hair like Charlotte Hatherly’s sultry younger sister, before he returns to the mic stand and stares down the crowd with an almost shimmering intensity. It’s easy to dismiss Britpop as having been a subculture of beery, bleary, Oasis-hollering lads and ladettes, but the reason why Superfood work so well is that they draw their influences from the genre’s far more interesting, less well remembered sidelines. Their sound is shot through with the faintly surreal arch-angst of Mansun, and has flashes of Supergrass at its most manic. The live version of Houses on the Plain has a sprawling loucheness that recalls early Suede, and It’s Good to See You, which sees several of the girls from the already fizzing audience hoisted up on to their boyfriend’s shoulders, has a chorus that Charlatans would kill for.

Superfood are far more than a retro karaoke act. The whole room – band and audience alike – vibrates with energy and feeling every moment they’re onstage. The influences may be vintage, but the feelings are all very much in the moment. The band have said in interviews that they’re annoyed with the constant Britpop comparisons, but they shouldn’t be. They’re taking a selection of the best bits of an era gone by, imbuing them with their own power and charm, and introducing them to a whole new generation of music fans. There’s enough substance here to keep them going long after the 90s revival finally dies.

Sophia Wyeth
Photos: Erol Birsen

For further information about Superfood and future events visit here.

Watch the video for Moodbomb here: