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MUsic pReviews By Brad Middleton
May is here and as it’s due to be the coldest ever it’s a good job we’ve got lots of great gigs for you to get out of the cold and get along to. It yet again proves that our great little city is the hub of new music in the south-east of England and what better way to go and witness what we have to offer than to get a ticket for the Great Escape event which promises great new as well as great established acts for your musical delectation.
tennis Blind tiger club / monday 28th
pRONG HYDRANT / Wednesday 9th
the cORRespONdeNts CONCORDE 2 / Thursday 24th
Terrible name but interesting band alert! Undoubtedly naming your band after what has to be a private band joke is a typically american indie type thing to do, confusing those who might like you and completely alienating those who don’t even want to understand you, thus limiting your appeal as much as possible. This has back-fired a bit for tennis, a three-piece from denver, as they are building nicely into quite a popular band and now with a second album to promote too this is sure to be a great show.
Great thrash-metal from late-80s heroes of the scene Prong, who come to our shores armed with their immense and best album Beg To Differ with which they intend to abuse our ears on this tour. The performance promises to showcase all that is great about this album; the vibrancy of the music, the passion, the dirty and distorted sounds and the intensity of the whole experience should leave the listener feeling great if the slam dancing doesn’t cause too much carnage.
This quirky, ambitious and highly relevant electro-swing duo returns to dazzle us yet again with their insanely entertaining show. Mixing up all kinds of crazy beats, almost akin to a history of all dance music from the wildest jazz to the very latest dub-step and most points in-between, with some great lyricism added to the equation it promises to be some show. Add in some crazed dancing both on and off stage and it suggests the idea that if you want to party on the 24th get down to the Concorde 2!
the vacciNes Brighton Centre / Monday 7th
passeNGeR Brighton Ballroom / Sunday 27th
GallON dRUNK Sticky Mike’s / Thursday 24th
A band who emerged so quickly it was almost instantaneous between the release of the first download and their young selves being inevitably labeled as the ‘next great hope’. With the release of their debut album following hotly on from this tip, the world was theirs for the taking and they grabbed the opportunity with both hands. That album is now a staple of any selfrespecting twenty-something indie-kid and the band have taken the option to play every enormo-dome across the country in the hope we’ll like the new stuff we hear as much as the old stuff.
‘A folk troubadour for the 21st century’, ‘A modern day Neil Young’. These are just some of the things they have said about Mike Rosenberg, a.k.a. Passenger. Originally formed as a five-piece in our own lovely town before Mike decided to ditch the rest, grab a guitar and go off to write and busk his way around the world. Travelling as far afield as Australia and the USA he wrote on the road and played everyday, often pulling in huge crowds for his impromptu busking sessions. Now the artist behind two albums, Wicked Man’s Rest and the more recent Wide Eyes Blind Love, we should consider ourselves proud of producing such an intriguing talent.
The alternative to the party down the road is this, the return of one of London’s, if not the UK’s finest punk-noise noir bands of the last twenty-five years. Hailing from north London Gallon Drunk always provided something different to what was going on everywhere else. When your correspondent first heard them they sounded like nothing he had heard previously, almost akin to noisedrenched homages to Leonard Cohen. Sleazy, cool, noisy and just down-right interesting, the 90s didn’t get much more interesting than Gallon Drunk. What they have to offer now, well frankly I can’t wait to find out!
May ver 3b.indd 6
02/05/2012 23:43