Art Brut (Bottom of the Hill, 20 March 2006)

Wow.

That, my friends was a surprisingly great show. And if you were there to experience Art Brut before a sold out crowd at Bottom of the Hill last night, you would agree with me.

Art Brut is an English five piece consisting of spontaneous and cheeky lead singer Eddie Argos, drummer Mikey B. who is the only drummer I've ever seen do his entire set standing up, silent in the corner bassist Freddy Feedback and crazy guitarists Jasper Future and Ian Catskilkin. They play songs about their little brother discovering rock n roll, teenagers being in love with love, moving to L.A. and weekend holidays. They're a band whose lead singer doesn't sing, but sort of just speaks, yet still manages to hit the right note at times.

Art Brut played a blistering barrage of songs mostly from their debut album Bang Bang Rock N Roll with b-sides and new songs mixed in. They started off with the beginning chords of Metallica's "Enter Sand Man" before launching into "Formed a Band." As Eddie spoke the words, "Look at us, we formed a band!" you can't help but wonder why you haven't formed one as well. These guys don't take themselves too seriously from the looks of it. Eddie isn't exactly a handsome lead singer, with his porn moustache, two sizes too small button up shirt that exposes his rather fat belly and love handles, but his charisma on stage more than makes up for it.

The crowd ate up every single song, hip movement and antic the band put forth. "My Little Brother" was met with the crowd, including myself, shouting out the lyrics. A frenzy occurred when they played "Modern Art" I believe. That's when a female audience member dragged Eddie off the stage and into the crowd. I thought he was hurt, but he played along and sang in the audience. He even pogoed with them and I gave him a pat on the back for his efforts. He didn't just stick to the front, but he made his way all the way back. Once he returned to the stage, he stepped down and did it again, this time visiting the audience located stage left. He repeated this towards the end of the set and during the encore.

All the songs they played off their album was just amazing! "Moving to L.A." was another song met with loud cheer. Instead of English, he used San Francisco when he said, "there's not much glam about San Francisco weather." Of course, he was referring to the rain that has drenched our city while L.A. enjoyed perpetual sunshine.

"Good Weekend" was the final song in the encore. They introduced the song as the #1 song in Japan, Australia and some other parts of the globe. It was truly their global hit. As they repeated "Art Brut. Top of the Pops," they also gave a shout out to the supporting acts Crystal Skulls and Gil Mantera's Party Dream (a duo of two men dressed in their underwear playing God knows what music -- think Peaches or Har Mar Superstar but dirtier). Also, he sang bits of another song (I forgot what it was) until they launched into the final stanza of "Good Weekend."

Overall, this was just a fantastic show and it was so much fun to watch every second of them. If you have a chance to see them at the Independent tomorrow, make sure you do it.

Beer Rating: 0 Beers