Brighton's best... |
Electric Six...
review It seems strangely apposite that just after one electrical storm has torn its way through Brighton, leaving a small trail of destruction, another one should begin. Yes, the Electric Six are back in town and they still want to take us to a gay bar.Making an entrance onstage to an already ecstatic crowd, it seems that the band have gone for a sleeker look than the spiv look they were sporting last time around. The safari suits, not seen since the heyday of ‘Whicker’s World’, have been replaced by slicker black numbers, and singer Dick Valentine’s greased-back hair and pencil ‘tache have made way for a mane of Tom Baker-esque curls. But this doesn’t mean they’ve sold out, grown up or gone serious – they’re still as daft and as thrilling as ever. And they stake their pitch almost immediately. There’s no messing about here. Song after song is blasted out in quick succession, ‘I Invented the Night’, ‘Dance Commander’, ‘Naked Pictures of Your Mother’... Sure, they’re all pretty much of a muchness soundwise – but when you’ve got the guitars cranked up to 11, vocals as daft as any ‘Tap song, and Dick Valentine entertaining the crowd with his physical prowess – sit-ups, press-ups, on-the-spot jogging, the lot – then it all makes for a riot. Why the world didn’t take this group to its bosom, opting for The Darkness instead is a mystery to me. But no matter. Another song grinds to a halt and Valentine is waving at the crowd like an over-enthusiastic child. The audience waves back with equal enthusiasm. And scream for ‘Gay Bar’. Instead, he promptly strips off his jacket and shirt, unbuckles his trousers and, naked but for some rather large boxers, launches into a one-man, guitar-only version of The Magnetic Fields’ ‘Underwear’. Brilliant. If there’s a better reason to jump for joy, who cares! The band look like they’re having a ball. Throwing rock n’ roll shapes on the monitors they rattle off a storming version of ‘Danger, High Voltage’. Despite the absence of saxophone or mysterious co-vocalist ‘John S. O’Leary’ it still manages to kick-arse, thanks to their hired hand synthesist Reuben - rushed all the way from Liverpool after their own lost a nose in an incident with a reindeer. Apparently. ‘Synthesizer’, appropriately enough, is also a stand-out track. But it’s ‘Gay Bar’ the crowd wants – and it is Gay Bar that the crowd shall have. Beginning their encore with some new stuff, or some other nonsense, the crowd knows it must come soon. And it does. The floor visibly shakes, the audience roars, and the crowd-surfers make their efforts that little more concerted. And it’s still just under two minutes long. As in life, anything that comes afterwards is just an anti-climax. But they’ve done what they came to do: they took us to a rock show, dragged us headfirst into a gay bar and found no resistance. And if that's not enough, see Viking kittens perform Gay Bar or view last year's REALBrighton Electric Six review
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