GIG REVIEW: The JD Set Presents: Art Brut [Backstage Pass]

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GIG REVIEW: The JD Set Presents: Art Brut

Posted on March 14, 2008 11:41 AM
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Art Brut
The Luminaire, Thursday 13th March

Review by Zarina Raja

It certainly isn’t wrong to break up a kiss for an Art Brut song. God, what a great live band; there are all these little gems that you forget about and then you stumble upon them again and everything fits back into place.

Music inspires you when it comes hand-in-hand with nostalgia and that is what Art Brut do for me. They are a party band, a band that needs to be seen live or played ridiculously loud before a night out. They feed their fans with a sense of freedom and well and truly dominate the venue.

Art Brut played a raw set; their songs were scratchy but smattered in Pop. Last night, like most nights, Art Brut put on an electrifying performance. A blithe Punk air sprawled through the bouncing venue as charismatic front man, Eddie Argos, did his thing.

Although Eddie put on a fine show throughout the night, talking and joking with the audience and lunging about the stage like an exasperated mad-man, the rest of the band certainly didn’t shy away from the spot light especially guitarist, Jasper Future.

He jammed, he stamped and totally rocked out, edging up front with Eddie. He fired the crowd up, beckoning with one arm whenever his fingers briefly left his guitar strings.

Art Brut kicked off the gig with Pump Up The Volume and spun out a stamping mass of tracks, old and new, including favourites, Modern Art and Emily Kane. Oh, Emily Kane.

One song rolled into another creating a shambolic mass of noise. The gig was spontaneous; it had an unperfected feel to it as they strayed from the set list and did what they pleased. Eddie roamed back and forth into the crowd, tossing himself about and then clawing his way back to the stage. ‘And that was two vodka and cranberries’ he said after throwing himself about amid fans. Jokes were as frequent as songs, transforming the crowd into a hyper heap of leaping Art Brut obsessives.

And who knew that We Are Scientists’ Keith Murray could scream out a lyric or two. With not an Indie lyric in sight, Keith smashed his way through the Art Brut encore, singing Bang Bang Rock n Roll, with Eddie joining him on stage half way through.