It’s a wonderful thing – Pasty- to hit Brighton at the weekend, particularly when some of the best up and coming bands are frequenting the seaside town and adding to it’s inimitable culture. So after consuming various stodgy carbohydrates – Chips and mushy peas- and smoking our way through the day we finally got to see some music, 7pm in fact, Pavilion Theatre, to see the now 2 piece Banjo or Freakout, I first came across Alessio a little over a year ago, we recorded one of his sets when he was still a solo live act, now they’ve doubled and it’s a great addition to have a percussionist take care of the bulk of the booming, it leaves Alessio to concentrate on the singing and guitar work, confidence in his performance has noticeably grown, his vocal now sits higher in the mix and complements the atmospheric songs well, the sound was stodgy though, the use of plenty of reverb and electronics in Banjo or Freakout needs a compassionate system and engineer, but this was of no fault of the band.
Banjo or Freakout
Despite this they created a grasping atmosphere, and when both players are drumming its a wonderful site. What wasn’t as pleasing, in fact puke inducing was the posters of Bono and U2 left Right and centre in the venue. Of all the venues – Crisps – featuring in TGE, The Pavilion Theatre had in my opinion the best line up, later on in the day was Three Trapped Tigers and School of Seven Bells, all these bands have an experimental original edge, therefore people going to see them, to me, would have nothing in common with the Irish Toss-pot, a waste of paper I say, even more so when they got pulled down from the walls and stuffed in the urinals, well maybe not such a waste.
So, so many bands playing, but the inevitable likelihood is that you’ll only end up seeing five maybe six……………….. or three, as I did, but with all the carbs – sushi - to be eaten, Im not gonna miss good food time for any old band, so I saw fit to see the entire set from a couple of bands, one down Banjo or Freakout, great to see progression.
S.C.U.M
The other band I had my eye on was S.C.U.M, the high trouser androgynytes, the gig took place in Horatios bar at the end of the pier – noodles - whoever came up with this idea had a masterstroke in ying-yang gig going, the bar had a sign outside instructing patrons they could not enter the premises shirtless, any venue that has to tell it’s punters they need to wear clothes to drink inside has got to be something special. So despite the truly mixed clientele and the loss of all my mates throughout the gig, I thought S.C.U.M were remarkable, they’re very much a scene band and the risk of their reverb heavy recorded sound being flawed live was a possibility, but they were better than expected, the drummer is superb, playing high tempo beats that counterpoint the bands slow marauding fuzz, the boys with boxes eeking out squeals and pops aplenty but with a restraint that suited the band well, they even used the projector for something other than Sky Sports News. A recommendation for anyone into the likes of; The Horrors, HTRK and My Bloody Valentine.
So the idea was to hole ourselves up in Concorde 2 for the onslaught of Evil Nine and Freeland, unfortunately this meant watching Juliette Lewis and the (new band), don’t get me wrong I’m not into slating bands because they have a Hollywood singer, but with the exception of the classic ‘You’re Speaking my language’ they’re a band destined for the Dogstar.
But the night had come to a strange crossroads, as the train muppets, I say muppets with the utmost slang like disrespect, had given us the option of a train at 11:36 or bus replacement service at 4am, now I really wanted to see Freeland and felt o.k considering, despite my self promises, we began drinking at 1:30 and I’d eaten my way through Brighton’s culinary underbelly – crisps – but I’m afraid we bolted – chicken kebab – the train was welcoming, but they need to sort this out for next year; 11:30 or 4am BS, it’s like choosing between S.C.U.M and Banjo, so although I hadn’t seen as many bands as I’d wished, I had seen two that were great, so not so bad after all, Glasto anyone ?………………………………should have stayed for Freeland, a plague upon our houses.
Liam Tuner
