Messed!Up
Until March this year, I hadn’t heard a single note from Brigitte Calls Me Baby. With a name that sticks out like that, you’d think someone working in music would at least have stumbled across one of the hottest bands on the indie circuit, especially with their second album just around the corner. Yet somehow, they had completely passed me by. The band occupies a curious and compelling space in today’s indie landscape: familiar enough to trigger nostalgia, but fresh enough to sound like they belong entirely in the 2020s. Crooning melodies, jangling guitars, and a vintage romanticism run through their songs, conjuring echoes of mid-century pop, classic alternative, and 1980s indie while maintaining a distinctly modern edge.
A friend played me a few songs from their debut when I dropped by his place to pick up some stuff for work. Within minutes, I was hooked. The Morrissey-like vocals, well-crafted indie pop songs, and the melodic hooks immediately grabbed me. I realised that Brigitte Calls Me Baby might just be one of the most magnetic new bands around, and suddenly I was desperate to see them live.
Luckily, I didn’t have to wait long. Four weeks after they first hit my radar, they landed at Hamburg’s Molotow, and tonight they returned to Hamburg to play a sold-out Knust. And yes, the hype is very real.
At the centre of the live experience is vocalist Wes Leavins, whose stage presence is impossible to ignore. He commands the room with the confidence of a classic crooner, combining theatrical gestures with old-school pop charisma. Hidden behind sunglasses, oozing a ‘too cool for school’ attitude, but with a popstar charisma that pulls people in. His rich, Orbison-meets-Morrissey baritone gives the songs an emotional weight that perfectly complements the band’s carefully crafted retro aesthetic.
And the Knust audience is completely buying into it. People are waving, singing along, and dancing with genuine enthusiasm, while others simply stare at the stage as if trying to work out exactly what they’ve stumbled upon. There’s some seriously wild dancing going on too, including our own wave-dancing photographer right down the front. The atmosphere is electric.
There’s a rare elegance to Brigitte Calls Me Baby’s songwriting. Opening with the irresistible crowd-pleaser “These Acts of Which We’re Designed”, followed by “Truth is Stranger Than Fiction” from their latest album, is a smart move. With their second album still fresh – well, it’s been out for four months, but it’s still relevant – the older material gives the audience familiar ground before the newer songs take over.
Their influences are clear without ever completely defining them. The ghosts of 1980s Morrissey and The Smiths are impossible to miss at times, while Roy Orbison and The Cure also loom large. But Brigitte Calls Me Baby aren’t simply hanging on to the past. Fast-paced guitar riffs, intricate arrangements and Leavins’ rich, crooning vocals combine into something that feels distinctly their own.
My personal highlights are, unsurprisingly, “Eddie My Love”, “Impressively Average” and the brilliant encore “There Always”. By the time they leave the stage, the Knust crowd has given everything it has.
I rarely discover a new band these days and immediately feel this excited. Brigitte Calls Me Baby are that rare exception. Four months ago, I didn’t know they existed. Now I’ve been to two shows and bought both their albums. That probably says it all.
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Photographer: Katrin Arfmann
