Brighton after dark: 8 July 2014
BEN BAILEY
On elephants, lions and ulcers
Adventures, sunshine and childhood holidays – that’s what comes to mind when people mention the Isle of Wight.
These are apt associations in the case of Lucky Elephant (Green Door Store, Fri 11 July) who claim the island as their home. The beardy foursome make an off-kilter form of multi-instrumental folk, using old synths, Wurlitzers, ukuleles and tape delays. These elements are used to complement some quirky melodies, variously happy-go-lucky and melancholic. At times, Lucky Elephant’s music recalls the ticky-tock music-box sound of children’s television from the ’60s and ’70s. The band’s latest single, ‘The British Working Man’, even comes with a stop-frame animation in the style of Camberwick Green, only much more lo-fi.
Also out of step with the mainstream, but in a very different way, are British Lion (Concorde 2, Wed 9 July). What sounds like it could be a UKIP function band is actually the classic rock side project of Iron Maiden’s songwriter and bassist, Steve Harris. Maiden haven’t split, but Harris has been given leave by Eddie and Bruce for a short tour on route to the International Motorcycle Convention in Portugal. Seems metal bands
don’t just do tours – they do road trips across Europe to play open-air concerts surrounded by hundreds of motorbikes. British Lion’s music is exactly what you’d expect (legs-apart riffs, fist-clenching choruses,
guitar-aimed-at-sky solos) but good fun nonetheless.
With song titles such as ‘Ulcer’, ‘Unhinged’, ‘Seizure’ and ‘Force Fed’, you might think that fun wasn’t on the agenda for Leeds band, Autobahn (The Hope, Sat 12 July). But theirs is an uplifting kind of angst, uniting the power of ’80s hardcore with the sinister edge of post-punk (the comparison to Black Flag and Joy Division is obvious, but it has to be made).
Being fellow loiners, the band has toured with Eagulls and are labelmates with Girl Names, but Autobahn are harder and heavier than both those bands. They rocked the Coalition during the Great Escape festival in May, The Hope should be heaving.
Follow: @latestbrighton
Brighton Noise
Chris Kuzmiski on the week’s best gigs
You don’t have to sit on the beach all day, you know. You can confront your innermost desire to rock! All these lovely people will be delighted to help you on your way. Iron Maiden are a bit special, whichever way you measure it: a proper British institution. Probably the only band that can wave a Union Jack about without offending someone – remember Morrissey? Well, chief galloping bass mammoth and all-round sound bloke Steve Harris is bringing his British Lion side-project to Concorde 2 on Wednesday. Rather glamorously between gigs in ultra hip Norwich, and Folkstone. Presumably that is for easy Eurostar access?
If you haven’t been to one of the stimulating sweatbox F=KX nights at Northern Lights you are blatantly missing out. This Friday they are bringing Les Agamemnonz to that very venue. It’s going to be all manner of wildly inappropriate surf-funk, right in your face! Support from local psyche mentalists The Space Agency. And dare I say it, it’s free!
At the Caribou Rooms in Hove on Friday is Saints Of The Lot & PolarSnap presenting The Chemist’s War! It is an explosively voluptuous night of circus and vaudeville. Much like Hove is the rest of the time, perhaps. It covers everything from burlesque to acrobats, and there may even be the odd bit of electro-swing chucked in for the kids.
Also on Friday is Skinny Girl Diet at Green Door Store. A power trio in the very most literal sense. Three viscerally sludgy girls on a nineties tip. There’s support from London’s Art Trip and The Static Sound and local types Dirty White Fever and Strange Cages.
Autobahn are playing The Hope on Saturday? What, the band from the Big Lebowski? Sadly not, but you can console yourself with their biting gothy post-punk. A genre on the very cusp of being enormous again.
“Who here likes the Wu-Tang?” This very question was asked approximately 15 times last time this writer saw Method Man & Redman. Not sure who would go and see them that doesn’t like the Wu … someone who develops selective amnesia on Sunday night at Brighton Dome as the lights go down? Someone with a truly unique phobia? The beats will be HUGE and you will love it. Might be worth noting, they will be onstage at the same time as the World Cup final. Not that that is important or anything.
Follow: @BrightonNoise
>CLUB HIGHLIGHTS<
Don’t miss our pick of Brighton after dark
LOST TRIBE LIVE
The record label and electronic music collective present a club night with live sets from Ambassadeurs, Eagles For Hands and new signing [crack]. Think bass grooves, chillwave, house and straight-up juke.
Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar, Fri 11 July, 11pm, Free
RUN TINGZ VS RESONANCE JUNGLE SESSION
Massive jungle night with the jungle massive spread over two rooms and an outside tent. Featuring Tenor Fly and Benny Page on the DJ lineup, the night also promises a hard-hitting assort-ment of drum’n’bass, dub reggae and bashment.
Concorde 2, Fri 11 July, 11pm, £5
SYNTHOLOGY
Andy X and Jack Jones chart decades of electro synth taking Gary Numan, Erasure and New Order as their starting point and working forwards to the techno era of Orbital, The Chemical Brothers and Underworld.
Komedia, Sat 12 July, 11pm, £5
TRASH MONDAYS
Fighting the forces that wished youngsters knew what was good for them, Charles Green and DJ Razor have spent years preaching the virtues of garbage, cheese and general trash. From drum’n’bass to dubstep, from hip hop to house, it’s nothing but pure rubbish.
Coalition, Mon 14 July, 11pm, £4/3
