Gig @ Prince Albert
Video Nasties, Threatmantics, Swanton Bombs
Review: 28th January 2009
at The Prince Albert, 48 Trafalgar Street, Brighton, BN1 4ED
Being new to Brighton I asked someone, as I finished watching soundchecks, if upstairs at the Prince Albert is a good place for live music. They said, No. From the standard of the three bands playing tonight they were wrong.
Opening the evening on this leg of a rotating-headliner tour was Video Nasties, a five-piece from London crafting catchy indie-pop with spiky flourishes. They quickly won the crowd, oddly squashed around an array of tables and seats, with their chop-changing and energetic songs reminiscent of The Libertines covering Los Campesinos! They hammered their instruments with a great deal of enthusiasm and a wonderful array of hairstyles.
Up next were Cardiff’s Threatmantics (they either followed me to Brighton, or I followed them). This unique folk-rock trio distort nursery-rhymes through a wall of guitar noise, battered drums and plonking keyboard and screeching, or tender, viola, with lead-singer Heddwyn Davies trilling about such things as apple trees or little birds. Their songs are instantly catchy, playing around memorable hooks and then distorting and warping them or doing a complete 180 and switching from innocence to angry and back again. Their debut mini-album Upbeat Love is highly recommended.
Swanton Bombs were tonight’s finale, a lead-singer/guitarist and a drummer, unleashing angular, scruffy indie post-punk with charm and smart arrangments. Like a half-size The Clash, their songs are oddly buoyant and see them channeling the spirit of 80s alternative through a modern filter. Live lead-singer Dominic twitches and coos around the mic, stabbing at his guitar and drummer Brendan is an alarming counterpoint as his arms flail around his drum-kit with elastic flexibility.
A jaunty, cacophony of noise which juxtaposes awkwardly against the seating layout and the bizzare choices for between band music. And, looking ahead on the Prince Albert’s MySpace, one of a numer of appealing gigs coming to this little nook above a very pleasant little bar tucked away just behind the train station.
Tags: Beachdownwriter
