i went to a gig last week, by myself that is. i tend to go to gigs by myself, mostly because i can’t really find people who both want to go anywhere with me AND tend to like a lot of bands i do. i don’t mean that in an emo meets indier-than-thou, i’m-so-lonely-but-i-have-the-consolation-of-being-into-much-obscurer-bands-than-you kind of way, it’s just that a lot of the people that i know with similar taste in music (although that’s a questionable concept in itself, i feel) would probably rather be sat at home watching Top Gear or Lost or whatever on Sunday night than have to forcibly spend time trying to be sociable with me. Questionable taste in television aside, i don’t really blame them. i think the last time i went to a gig with other people was, ooh, freshers’ week probably, and although i know there were a few musos there i assume most of them were just pleased to have found somewhere else to get drunk in. Ah, how sweet student prejudice is. The gig, by the way, was at Audio with Coin-Op and Fujiya & Miyagi. The latter were…well i’ve heard a lot of their material since and it sounds very impressive, but there was something a bit cringe-inducingly ‘jazz funk’ about their live presence. Maybe i was just having a bit of a bad week, because Coin-Op were also a bit disappointing, frankly. i knew of them already because they used to be on Fierce Panda and were even in the 2002 Festive Fifty with…
Coin-Op – Democracies*
…but, now, they just seem a bit contrived really. Like they’ve realised that what they were doing then, the whole Fall-larking-about-on-the-end-of-the-pier thing, became fashionable between then and now so they’re gonna try and dominate the South scene by getting trendier haircuts and ditching all their old songs. Hmm.
Anyway, last week i went to Komedia which i don’t usually go to for a number of reasons, firstly because most of their gigs charge quite far into the double figures, secondly because they have much fewer bands playing than your average venue (although when they’re good, they’re really good – the next few months sees Kieran Hebden & Steve Reid, Camera Obscura, The Skatalites (!), Scout Niblett and John Shuttleworth (!!!!!)
for instance) but also it’s difficult to tell how exactly to act in there. It’s a building with two floors acting like two separate venues and often hosts comedy acts and spoken word nights, so when a band roll in they usually get one support act, who seemingly play from the moment the doors open for half an hour, and then the main band comes on and does nearly a two hour set. It does feel like the band is in an unusual setting, like they really are playing on a stage where there’s usually stand-up or improve theatre or something, and the crowd rarely help make things less confusing. At this gig, the two blokey blokes in front of me hugging their beer bottles were leaning into each other discussing how good the guitar sound was with the acoustics in the room, while a couple of guys behind me were flailing their arms in the air and belting out the lyrics like they were crushed against the barriers on Worthy Farm.
The support in this case seemed to be The Left Outsides who when the male vocalist was singing made them sound like the folky-dokey Elbow, almost comedically so, yet when the female vocalist took her turn the songs had a certain dusty charm to them. On the drumkit was a friendly, gaffa-taped greeting that bore the legend ‘HELLO LOVE’, but seeing as that’s how The Broken Family Band commence their e-mail emissions i suspect it was their doing.
The last time i was at Komedia was to see the Brighton leg of the Phrased & Confused tour which aims to collate artists recognised for either poetic or musical accomplishment or, preferably, both. For instance, the poetic side included the magnificently bemused and bile-fuelled Brendan Cleary, the music-poetry divide was bridged by Sore Throat and of the lyrical/musical bent was former Delgados songstress Emma Pollock.
Emma Pollock - Limbs
[Edit: i like to think i’m very rarely star-struck, or at least that i’m pretty much just as awkward around most people regardless of their fame or lack thereof, but i feel like i was with Pollock. Strange really. She was just sat behind the merchandise stall but i could barely force myself to approach it, perhaps in case she happened to start singing and i’d start weeping or something, i don’t know. i think it was because i was recalling when i was about 14, being driven around rural France listening to ‘Everything Goes Around The Water’ over and over again on my cassette walkman and thinking every time that it got to the chorus, no, this can’t be mere mortals making this sound. Or maybe it is, and the rest of us are just singing all the wrong notes. i sure was a dramatic little shit in my early teens but they’ll still always be a band i adore greatly, and there will still always be some people that you simply do not talk to.]
Also on the Phrased & Confused bill was Chris T-T who, as a Brighton resident and Bee Eff Bee Dee Voe Tee was also in the crowd at the gig. He’s pretty much given up his snidely comedic light-relief pop culture swipes, like, for example:
Chris T-T – Eminem Is Gay
…and is mostly concerned with either socio-political (with emphasis on the political) lyrical attacks or heartstring-weaving acoustic domestica-yarn songs. The band noticed him in the crowd, which was sweet i felt, and at the beginning of the encore Steven Adams even worked a line from Chris’ tune ‘The Tin Man’ and shot him a sly wink. A touching moment, soiled only by realising that i’m a big enough T-T geek to have realised it ever happened.
Chris T-T – The Tin Man
Anyways, the band in question were indeed The Broken Family Band and they were good, which is about as extensive as my critical assessment of the performance is going to get i’m afraid. i should point out that although Steven (who could possibly, as far as i’m aware, now no longer be referred to primarily as the singer from The Broken Family Band but as the singing Adams from The Singing Adams?):
The Singing Adams – Minus Nines
…held the attention of a very warm and admiring crowd, guitarist Jason turned out to be quite the rock n’ roll showman, managing to get an audience member to chuck him a light in the middle of a song, pulling one of the smuggest grins ever seen in popular musical performance during the solo in ‘Poor Little Thing’ and wearing a Boston t-shirt to mark the passing of lead singer Brad Delp that weekend. There was even a short improvised rendition of ‘More Than A Feeling’.
Surprisingly (i felt anyway) they started with this:
The Broken Family Band – The Perfect Gentleman
…and ended with this:
The Broken Family Band – You’re Like A Woman
The only interesting downside was that near the end the audience were asked to hold hands with the person they turned up with or were standing next to, in a move that Mr Adams recalled from seeing Lenny Kravitz at some enormo-dome somewhere hot, and i realise that i’m seemingly the only sad bugger in the room who’d turned up by himself.
*please note: i’ve no idea what an .ogg file is.
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