Brighton Noise, Alastair Reid on the week’s best gigs
Right, take Tuesday off because it’s a banger. Not the sausage kind. Manic Street Preachers are often remembered for the disappearance of Richey Edwards and the subsequent success of breakthrough album Everything Must Go, but die-hard fans will be out to hear hits from The Holy Bible, hands down the best record the band ever committed to tape. Recent reviews from the start of the tour have revealed a mixture of new material and classics, as you would expect from a band in their third decade, and Wednesday they play the Concorde. Thirty quid, mind.
Back when James Dean Bradfield and Co were still knocking about in Caerphilly, when thoughts of balaclavas, skirts and razor blades were as distant to them as the shores of Australia, Mike Watt founded Minutemen, one of the most influential punk bands in history. Now he’s playing with his new band, The Missing Men, at Green Door Store, also on Wednesday.
If this is all sounding a bit loud, head down to Komedia where the “captivating, inspiring and emotionally draining” Simone Felice – at least according to our own Grace Clarke – is supported by Laish’s Danny Green,
a stalwart of the local folk scene and damn nice chap.
Take Thursday off too.
Friday is cause to celebrate, because it’s Friday. The lovely chaps from Lick yoghurt, them what used to run that shop opposite Komedia, are starting to make a name for themselves. When they still had the shop everyone from local buskers to Charlotte Church came to warble over frozen dairy and now they’re hosting shows at their new office in New England House. Friday sees cellist Abi Wade try out her new electronica (cellectronica? no), topping a night of music and art and yoghurt, with electro-poppers A Lily, NYX and lots of art.
Round the corner is the delectable Forest Swords – tip-of-the-week from Brighton Noise’s James McLarnon – promoting new album Engravings. Mixed outdoors and with a ubiquitous Eastern ambience, Engravings comes off the back of a “violent” case of tinnitus and a co-pro credit on How To Dress Well’s ‘Cold Nites’, but is heralded as a return to form.
Go see Chrysta Bell run through her collaborations with David Lynch – yes that one, although he won’t be there – at the Studio Theatre on Saturday, supported by Dog In The Snow.
Sunday gives you the choice of Kurt Vile’s psych-folk, at All Saints Church, or Stephen O’Malley’s apocalyptic noise factory at Green Door Store. Then go see Sophie-Ellis Bextor at Concorde 2 on Monday. Kidding.
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