Gig review: Somebody’s Child at Rescue Rooms, with better joy

Arriving at Rescue Rooms just after the doors opened to discover there was almost an hour to wait until the show started was briefly frustrating… but the regular Monday night Acoustic Rooms was in full swing next door and the atmosphere was buzzy. In fact, the city centre felt very much alive, particularly for a Monday night. This really is a great city. 

Of course, the advantage of that wait time is that there’s plenty of time for a crowd to gather and give the support act the audience they deserve, and the sense of anticipation builds nicely. Tonight’s opener deserved as many people in the house as possible. Bria Keely, performing as better joy, is one of those artists who always hits the nail dead-centre on the head. There’s no wasted time, no gradual settling in. She steps up with a smile, hits the notes and energy levels immediately, and then just keeps on going.

The last time we saw better joy in Nottingham it was for her headline show at The Bodega (our review is here, and we also grabbed some time to chat with Bria which you can read about here). Tonight, she was at Rescue Rooms on support duty – but you’d never have guessed it. She gave her all, and more, starting with the jangly, upbeat energy of Carnival and moving into what a day, a song which reflects life’s realities through a series of cameos, but ultimately proves uplifting and cathartic. 

better joy’s music is characterised - aptly - by a beautiful joyfulness: it’s an unbridled release of emotion which brings bright colour to the well-formed sound. The emotion is not always in your face, though. The song quiet thing is a great explosion of the simple, often overlooked, moments of an intimate relationship. It sounded good tonight, tinged with just a little of the added rawness that comes from a live performance. The only shame was that the crowd seemed strangely reticent and a little stiff – not quite giving the usual Nottingham vibes. Still, Bria pushed on and won through.

Other songs such as waiting on time and Dead Plants were similarly elevated and energetic, but always played with accuracy by Bria and her well-engaged band, and latest single steamroller sounded wide and sweeping (and a good taster of the new EP which comes out on Halloween.

Rising Irish rock quintet Somebody’s Child began their set gradually: guitarist Shea Tohill kneeling to adjust knobs on a sequencer, building a sonic landscape for several minutes before Cian Godfrey approached the microphone and began singing The Kid in surprisingly delicate tones. 

Last Night I Held Your Hand kicked in with rhythmic intensity and from there the energy was high. Those first two songs were from Somebody’s Child’s second album, When Youth Fades Away, but the rest of the set began to explore other parts of the back catalogue, offering a rich narrative with plenty of fascinating moments.

At the mic, Godfrey combined moments of other-worldly intensity with others of apparent distraction in his gaze, while his physical presence veered from gentle pacing to transported twitching. The crowd was on the band’s side from the start, singing along with gusto by the third song of the set (Broken Record) – but still strangely hanging back from the barrier for a while.

A couple of songs later, Irish Goodbye was the first notable pinnacle of the evening: rich and somehow plaintive, but exceedingly warm, too – that’s how Somebody’s Child rolls. After Give It Up To Love had allowed us to drift away on the sea of its irresistible chord progression, reflecting on its deeper meaning, New Orleans was slow and all the more powerful for it: a restrained, dramatic anthem.

Another highlight of the night was a short journey back to 2021 in the form of a pair of songs from the EP titled Hope, Amongst Other Things: The Lover and Lost. There are few songs which are more emotive, more heart-rending and painfully wonderful than Lost, with its refrain “‘Cause I’ve been crying underwater, I dry my tears of all the memories of you”.

The new album supplied some more upbeat material again, with Wall Street and Porcelain ringing through with strident confidence; and then it was back in time to end the night. I Need Ya was a slice of youthful exuberance. Finally, before the band exited the stage on a high, they performed another song from their debut album: Jungle. Heavy, fast and ultimately triumphant, gathering emotions of the room into one all-too-short song. 

Even those who weren’t able to peek at the lengthy setlists taped to the stage knew there’d be a return. It happened after a couple of minutes of silence and darkness...

But before the single encore, We Could Start A War, a starkly beautiful poem was played through the PA.

“A portal to a far away land, where the sea is healed, where there’s sand. Take me to wonderland, just for a while… Let me be somebody’s child”, it ended.

Godfrey explained that this was a collaborative poem written and read by Hayam Taha, a friend of the band’s and a poet from Gaza. Tonight, the band was also selling a T-shirt created with Taha, in aid of Doctors Without Borders. It was a lovely and generous gesture, as was the effusive and clearly genuine praise that Godfrey took time to give to better joy.

That summed up the night. It was one of richness, skill and genuine, reciprocal affection. Both artists had performed brilliantly and memorably, and hopefully the welcome they received will be enough to bring them back soon.

Somebody’s Child performed at The Bodega on 20th October 2025, with support from better joy.

@betterjoymusic