The Beths played to a sold out CHALK in Brighton on 27 September. All the way from New Zealand, frontwoman Liz Stokes led the indie-rock band through an impressive and energetic set.
The Beths arrived onstage promptly at 8:20pm, taking to the stage in colours that felt reminiscent of a 90s craft TV show. It’s in keeping with what fans will come to have expect from The Beths; the music video for ‘No Joy’ features crayons, pipe cleaners and clay modelling.
To the widespread delight of the Brighton crowd, The Beths kicked off with the title track of their latest album Straight Line Was A Line. After ‘Uptown Girl’ Liz introduced the band – Jonathan Pearce on guitar, Benjamin Sinclair on bass, and Tristan Deck on the drums, with all three doing backing vocals.
Understated yet humorous, The Beths are particularly playful live. Stokes smiled at one point as she paused playing guitar to hit a triangle, almost seeming to laugh at herself and the instrument. Later, Pearce and Sinclair demonstrated the recorder launchers they designed. The two pressed down on their respective launchers and brightly coloured recorders flew straight up into their outstretched hands. They explained it’s for when you’re playing guitar and can’t switch to your recorder fast enough. Obviously. If you scouted New Zealand for the four coolest, most fun primary school music teachers and put them in a band, I imagine you’d end up with something a lot like The Beths.
Over the course of the evening, The Beths played 9/10 tracks of their ANTI-Records released August 2025 album, alongside 7 others from their previous records. ‘Silence Was Golden’ was a personal highlight of the gig, the band’s energy spilling over into a crowd that danced throughout and sang along to the last refrain acapella.
Brighton was the late date of The Beths’ UK tour before they hit France on September 29. They’ve a huge tour ahead with them, playing Europe before moving on to North America. If they come anywhere close to you, make sure you see them before they head on home.
Opening the gig were the Auckland based band Dateline who will be supporting The Beths for the rest of their European tour. The musical project of Katie Everingham, Dateline’s Instagram bio defines them as from Aotearoa – the indigenous Māori word for New Zealand. Everingham began the gig by wishing the Brighton crowd a happy Sunday night, before becoming utterly bewildered when the crowd promptly called back it was Saturday. It’s an understandable mistake for a band who were on their 9th gig in 10 days, playing in a country 12 hours out of whack with their own. There’s nothing misaligned about Dateline’s music though; fun, joyful and effervescent the indie-pop band had the audience dancing from the outset.
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