Porij at Patterns, Brighton: Gig review

Lead singer Eggy told the crowd: “Brighton this is our last moment together, so I need you to do me a favour.”

At this point, the audience was so gripped they could have been told to run over the road from the Patterns venue and jump into the sea, but thankfully they were given the simple task of going wild when the song kicked back in.

The track played, the audience went berserk and the band left the stage capping off a wonderful night of music on the Sussex coast.

For fans of indie dance music, the Brighton nightclub was the place to be on Tuesday (September 27), as three hours of house, techno, garage, drum and bass and jungle filled the packed-out venue.

Porij’s popularity has been growing steadily ever since the group formed at Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester three years ago, with their singles becoming a staple of BBC Radio Six Music’s broadcasting since 2020.

Their frequency on the airways has clearly had an impact, with their audience demographic being a blend of students, ex-ravers and middle-aged parents and couples.

This was a night to talk about the headliners, as much as it was the two support acts, who both played their part in creating this memorable gig.

1-800 Girls opened the night with his new wave take on the dance genre , before Jacana People nearly stole the show with their emotive electronica beats.

The audience was ready to dance, the support acts had done their bit and now it was down to Eggy, James, Jacob and Nathan to finish the job and give everyone in attendance a night for the ages.

The popular 150 opened the show and was played to perfection, its mellow groove and jangly guitar riff represented a morning front room jamming session. A comforting opener which was followed by Ego, blending funk and house music influences to flow into a heavier, bass-driven chorus built for moving to.

However, while the songs sounded great, the Brighton crowd had not fully taken to the bait, which confused Eggy, who joked with the audience that they were much too quiet for their liking.

Their national charisma and humour is what made the rest of the evening so memorable, helping the audience to come out of their shells with each passing song with a number of fun anecdotes and stories behind the tunes they had written, as a growing number of bodies started to move to the garage-inspired Closer.

The band were not afraid of the slightly tepid audience and continued to move freely through the musical genres, performing a drum and bass-style cover of Eyes on You, originally a fragile piano ballad by Art School Girlfriend.

Heaven Knows, Divine and Automatic are then pumped into the atmosphere, slowly but surely the crowd is reaching the level of movement Eggy and her bandmates expected from the start.

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Another cover follows, an upbeat indie dance pop version of Radiohead’s Everything In Its Right Place that drops into a baseline finish, a nice touch and hat tip to the band’s wide ranging influences.

Figure Skating’s liquid Dnb backing track and angelic harmonies were beautiful to listen to, as were the deep house beats of Outlines. Many had questioned whether Porij’s sound could work on a live stage and the four members were proving those doubters wrong with every passing song.

When the static keyboard riff of Lose Our Minds begins, the crowd are now fully giving everything to the performance, with the venue now resembling something more likely seen at 2am on a Saturday night, with Eggy not afraid to jump into the crowd and get involved in the partying.

Then comes the highlight of the night, the groovy Nobody Scared, an indie pop track about the importance of inclusion and safety within the dance community, a crowd favourite that contained a top line which everyone sings along to in a moment of strength and unity, being as poignant as it was powerful.

The band thanked the audience and finished with I Like That. It may have taken a while to get going, but once it did, this was one of the best gigs to be a part of in 2022.

Fun, uplifting and charming – it showcased the very best of what dance music can offer people.

If the opportunity arises to watch Porij live, I would thoroughly recommend you take it.