Brighton Live 2007
Six days and close to thirty bands, and finally the madness has stopped for your intrepid reporter who's been out all week attempting to gauge the health of the Brighton music scene. I am pleased to report back that we are in a good state and that there are some real hidden treasures out there to discover for lovers of quality music.
Highlights of a most manic week included the opportunity to drink lots of free drink and meet some nice new people, but most importantly see some great bands and acts. Pope Joan at the Engine Room were fantastic in a Bloc Party kind of way but with a heady dose of originality, and are definitely one to keep an eye on for the future. Exxon Valdeze are the latest in a growing trend of two-piece bands (along with the equally great Henry Chinaski who I was saddened not to see on any bill this week) and use it to rustle up the spirit of early 90s American rock - think Nirvana and Queens Of The Stone Age - and don’t seem to care that it is not original or the latest supposed hip thing. This is definitely encouraging as to my ears as bands are always better when they just play music that they really love and are not just making it in the hope of selling a few records and getting a bit of commercial success.
At the other end of the loudness spectrum, the Diamond Family Archive are just astonishing. Quiet, lyrically inspiring, beautifully, introspective experimental folk music - they were as original as that makes it sound and more. The show at Hope had the added highlight of watching a spaced-out acid-head getting down to DFA’s hushed tones before storming the stage at the end of the set much to everyone’s amusement.
Experimentalism is also alive and well and in the shape of Static Crash, someone else who is out there doing his own inspired music and not caring about the trends of popular music. Lord Spiritual offered some excellent psychedelia whilst La Momo blasted off into outer space and took a lot of their audience with them. Until Escape almost caused a riot at the Engine Room after a stage invasion got out of hand and the promoter called the police.
As with all festivals though, as you are no doubt aware, there was a lot of commercial indie nonsense cluttering the line-up and Brighton seems to have a lot of them floating around at the minute. Doll And The Kicks and Joe Nightmare both plough the girl-fronted indie-disco-pop line and whilst being more than capable at pulling off the sound, what is the point in just wanting to be like so many others? If I thought that was bad though, the lad rock of Subliminals pushed my patience to the verge of breaking point. However, quite definitely the worst of the lot were My Federation. They may have been much raved about by those who think they are in the know, and Hector's House was packed out to see them, but why? Truly awful music that had me glancing towards the exit before the first song had even finished.
These bands aside, elsewhere across the festival the likes of (-a+m), My Device, The Don Bradmans, Elizabeth Walling and the Young Soul Rebels were all great in their own ways and if you appreciate original music then get along to see them as soon as possible. Off the radar of Brighton Live, a few other venues offered free live shows this week and my personal highlights of these were indie demi-gods I’m Being Good at the Freebutt and then the mighty rock’n’roll blast of Atomic Suplex at the Hobgoblin.
Despite the negatives, the week was definitely a resounding success and I’m already looking forward to next year’s one!
Various venues, 24th-29th September 2007.
Written by Bradford Middleton.
