It's raining on Wednesday evening. The harbour kind of stinks, and the wind-rain combo isn't doing anyone any favours - except maybe the bar at the Louisiana. Crushed Beaks have had to pull out of supporting tonight because of an injury, and the venue isn't exactly close to the centre of town, so most of the gig-goers have been sitting in the warm of the ground-floor pub for an hour or two before tonight's one-act gig begins.
Once the doors open, everyone heads upstairs to a small room with a low ceiling, some interesting smells, and Happyness' set-up, accompanied by pink and green lighting. The room fills up a little more with a huge range of people, from teenage hipsters to over-50s to Big Jeff, and about ten minutes later, three guys walk through the crowd and onto the stage. They're all wearing t-shirts, jeans and trainers, and one t-shirt, a Doc Martens "Stand for Something" tee, has been filled in so the front of it reads "I stand for Christmas." Meet Jonny, Benji, and Ash, AKA Happyness.
The set begins with the chilled out 'Weird Little Birthday', then goes on to two new tracks, one of which is A Whole New Shape. Happyness only have one album (and one EP) out so far but fans are already singing along to their songs and Big Jeff's dancing is making the speaker next to him shake a worrying amount.
The band have clearly evolved from when they wrote their first album. They still perform songs from it, of course, and they do it well, but these have new melodies and riffs added to them, so it never gets old. The faster songs fill the room with sound and energy and could easily feature on some kind of road trip soundtrack, while the slower songs feel so personal and all three band members are so focused & lost in their music that it feels almost intrusive to watch.
Audience members sing and sway along - it's all pretty laid-back, and there's sometimes a sense of awkwardness to the boys' filler conversation while tuning up between songs, but they get the balance just right and the crowd interacts and laughs with them. There's some confusion about what appears to be a PIN code on the floor of the stage. There's mention of Jonny waking Benji up just to tell him not to wear a white t-shirt tonight so that they wouldn't have the same outfit. Everything feels really friendly.
Happyness still mix things up and switch instruments for different songs, taking turns with vocals and piano in particular. It's this kind of thing that makes them such a great band to go back and watch again and again. The band make the mistake of saying they've got "two more songs left in Bristol", which, after a little persuading, turns into three more songs. Lofts is a new addition to the set as the band "couldn't work out how to play it live before", but you wouldn't know, as it's delivered perfectly and captivates the room. The set ends with Regan's Lost Weekend, bringing the tempo back down to how it started, and it feels like the right way to end things.
The band hang around after the gig, smoking and chatting with anyone who comes up to them. A group of middle-aged men set up in the corner of the pub, talking about how Happyness are an insanely talented group of people, and that crowds don't know how to react (other than with applause) when they see that. Each band member seems so absorbed in their music when they play, and this is so clearly what they love doing. Happyness definitely deserve more recognition and more of a following, and it feels like that's coming, but when it happens, it'll be on their own terms.
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