Yeah Christmas is a great laugh, and it’s a welcome holiday break as the winter kicks into full swing, but for live gigs its a bit sparse. During this period there’s been plenty of club action, especially over the New Year celebrations, but nothing of any outstanding note. So it’s with a welcome note that we swing into 2009 with a fresh look ahead to what the town of Brighton brings us. Being one of the finest towns in the UK for new music, particularly Spring and Summer when it really gets into it’s major party mood with mucho festivals and circuits going on.
LA ROUX
You don’t even have to look beyond January to catch one of the hottest artists that’s in true blog-ascendancy at the moment. We’ve already posted about her back in The Recommender 17, but as with all artists there’s nothing quite like seeing them up close and personal. And it doesn’t get much closer and more personal than at the New Hero club. Once again Henry’s excelled himself with his ability to catch onto the UK’s pop zeitgeist by booking up an artist so hot it’s being advised you wear your non-flammable undies. La Roux follows a long list of attractive, fresh pioneering acts to New Hero, such as Little Boots, or Surkin, or The Golden Filter, to name just three of many, many amazing performers in recent months. Get down there to witness the truly talented electropop sensation, with her unique style, vocals and sound, before she heads on to a larger tour nationwide supporting Lilly Allen.
ACT: LA ROUX
VENUE: NEW HERO, Lower Dyke Road, Brighton
COST: £ 6.50
DATE: Friday 30th January 2009
WEBSITE: Myspace
ANIMAL COLLECTIVE
This band has been around since 2000 and it is with their 9th album, Merriweather Post Pavilion, due out next week, that they seem to be gathering attention once again in the blog world. With a boat packed ram-jammed full of blog hype, they floated over our horizon and into view. At first listen you won’t be sure of the hype, with a mixed bag of sounds. Part psychedelic pop, part mashed up soundscape, their songs always seem to start out like a crash of randomness, but then out of the bleeps comes a beat and a tune that builds up to a formula that then works. Like the weirder side of any Super Furry Animals song, or if you like MGMT’s left-field side and you take to anything that’s experimenting changing the face of things, rather than following anything else, then this Baltimore 4-piece should tick your box. Gigs around the release of a new album always seem to get an extra 10% out of the band in my experience, so catch them while they are burning bright.
ACT: ANIMAL COLLECTIVE
VENUE: CONCORDE 2, Marine Parade, Brighton Beach
COST: £ 7.00
DATE: Thursday 15th January 2009
WEBSITE: Myspace
We are already getting hints and whispers about the upcoming artists getting booked up for some of Brighton’s excellent, (and numerous), Spring and Summer festivals, so plenty more will soon arrive on this Gig List, so make sure you head back here when you can.
Mike
