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Who says punk’s dead? At a heaving, sweaty Hope, kiwi garage punk-poppers Die! Die! Die! played an energetic set. Invading not only the crowd but bar area, speakers and all the way to the back and even out the venue entrance, this was a frantic exercise in the power of pure punk spirit. Though their sound is nothing new (and doesn’t work as well on record), this was forgotten in the haze of abandon. With tremendous word of mouth and madly long queues to get in, Die! Die! Die! were one of this event’s buzz bands and may emerge as this year’s big winners.

The Hope, 14 May
Rating:
Nick Aldwinckle

You know quintessentially Parisian-themed cabaret/theatre in the round must be good when the grass of the Pavilion Gardens is littered with quintessentially Parisian people queuing to get in. 2 Rien Merci brought the scuffed charms of Montmartre to the Brighton park, even going to the effort of producing a fine simulated drizzle sprayed from the top of their battered tent. Inside, fairground weirdness propelled a show equal parts innocent street theatre and Lynchian oddness. An hour-long show is probably the most you could take, but the three performing gentlemen certainly make best use of the intimate setting…

Pavilion Gardens, 14 May
Rating:
Jim Milnes

Record label idiots: you should have been at this gig. Forget your pant-wetting folk hipsters, simplistic synth goons and lame chillwave. Gum Takes Tooth represent all that is uncommercial, unpalatable and puts the ‘great’ in Great Escape. The drums and sampler duo confounded possible expectations of eighties foolishness with a madly heavy half hour of doom metal meets dubstep meets stoner rock, punk and anything else noisy in-between. Eardrum-bursting, complicated drumming burst into black metal screeches and F*ck Buttons electronic dissonance as perhaps the heaviest band you could see at this year’s event, with or without guitars, immediately stole the show.

The Hope, 14 May
Rating:
Nick Aldwinckle

It’s hard to tell the difference between this and the evening’s previous set ‘Pick of the Fringe’. A change in venue would have helped when you consider most of acts had appeared earlier in the evening in The Quadrant’s previous shows, and most of the audience had seen the previous shows too. MC Lenny Peters pushed things along nicely and as with Pick of the Fringe, Paul F Taylor proved why he’s a firm favourite at this year’s Fringe mixing well constructed gags with acerbic quick wit. Equally Bob Slayer (whether you believe he is actually drunk or not) is anarchic, edgy and incredibly watchable.

Laughing Horse @ The Quadrant, 13 May
Rating:
Lee Stevens