Gig @ Albert (13/02)
Charlot Webster, Duke Raoul, Stars and Sons
Review: 13th February 2009
at The Prince Albert, 48 Trafalgar Street, Brighton, BN1 4ED
Upstairs at The Albert, a hop, skip and a jump from Brighton Railway Station, was another evening of quality music in the cosy, upstairs bar. Opening the evening was Charlot Webster, a singer-songwriter armed with a half-size electric guitar or ukelele and backed up with a friend on drums, glockenspiel, keyboard and kazoo. The first and most noticeable thing about Webster is her voice, which, within seconds, silenced the entire room; it’s somewhere between the quick, spritely and emotive tones of Fiona Apple and the dark, beguiling, jazzy sound of Cat Power, but more importantly it’s beautiful. Fortunately the songs Webster sings are beautiful too, musically and lyrically, with melodies that ring around your head and inventive arrangments; though one track did get quite close to Kate Nash territory.
Second act Duke Raoul (a mixed up Hunter S. reference?) and though they had a tough act to follow they didn’t need to worry, their indie-pop sound was energetic and catchy and again bolstered by their lead-singer(Alex Painter)’s voice which was refreshing and, when required, stirring and powerful; especially on their penultimate song a rousing, slow-number that – for me – was the stand-out of their set. Otherwise their upbeat indie didn’t fall into many of the pitfalls that a lot of current acts stagger blindly down and provided a pleasingly spiky mid-point to the night.
Closing the evening was Stars and Sons, who said they weren’t used to headlining an evening, but they did a damn fine job of it. Their closest cousin, sound-wise, is Ben Folds Five, with lead-singer Mike Lord also hammering the keys of his piano, a lot of their songs really brought back memories of the early days of Ben Folds Five when their music was full of life, wit and noise. Though they do bare a slight resemblence aurally, they did not feel like a rip-off and had an overall musical feel of their own, with songs exploding into life and the band performing them with visible passion and skill.
On a downside the audience were a little timid tonight, keeping their distance from the stage (a side-effect of the Albert’s seating plan), any newcomers to the venue throughout the evening masochistically forced themselves through the tightly tesselated crowd and made their way into any available nook at the back of the room. Elsewhere there was a brilliantly stocked merchandise table, mainly crammed with the arts and crafts of Charlot Webster that included a ‘zine, CDs with hand-sewn packaging, framed artwork and a flip-book; also present was her mix-tape exchange, a charming lo-fi, retro concept where you bring a mix-tape you’ve made, drop it in a box and take one out in return and, fingers crossed, listen to some good music.
All in all the Albert has managed to host another great evening of music, this time showcasing three of the finest Brighton-based acts around at the moment.
Tags: Beachdownwriter
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February 20th 2009 | 1
Prince Albert gig / rehearsals | The fun-filled homepage of Brighton based pop mongrels 'Stars and Sons' says:
