Electric Soft Parade / The Tenderfoot / The Actress
Hands
Brighton Pressure Point 7/7/5
Ten of us descended on the tiny 140 capacity upstairs venue for my
number *cough* birthday gig-out.
First up agreeable but unsurprising guitar band The Actress Hands. They
seemed 'nice', but did nothing much to prevent me concentrating on my
beer. Sorry guys, you can't have been too mad if you managed to pass
me by so successfully.
I've seen Brighton's own The Tenderfoot supporting Brighton's own Electric
Soft Parade before (probably as both have members in indie supergroup
The Brakes). They sound very similar to, and just as good as, Elbow.
Lovely, lovely mellow atmospheric music you can let wash over you and
let yourself get lost in. They reproduce their on-record sound live
well, and in time will surely push on to make it sound even better.
Worth catching live, and picking up a copy of their superb debut full
album (they modestly say tonight "which nobody liked"), 'Save
The Year', if you like what you hear.
ESP have released two fantastic albums before they were cruelly dropped
by the evil fat cats at BMG, despite a Mercury Music Prize nomination
for their debut. After a period of confusion they now have eighty (yes,
eighty!) new songs in the bag and are pushing to find a record deal
(the only upshot of which is, tickets tonight were only £4.50).
They shouldn't really be having so much of a struggle. A classic indie
band if even I heard one, with great pop singles such as 'Empty At The
End' and 'Silent To The Dark' that you can sing to and mosh to at the
same time. They are exciting, engaging with the crowd, joking and with
plenty of banter between the two (brother) frontmen. Their new songs
sound fantastically catchy, despite me not knowing them. They have fun
on stage tonight (Tom going as far as to admit "I don't believe
it, we are actually playing a good gig!") and backed by a session
bassist and drummer (Formally of dodgy! But now rather podgy!) they
create an amazing sound that deafened me for the next day or two. My
particular highlights included 'Things I've Done Before' and 'Headacheville'.
A happy, enjoyable gig for all who went, with smiles on the faces of
the entire crowd. The place was packed out with enthusiastic fans. They
MUST be offered a deal before I go mad waiting for their certain-to-be-awesome
third album. Amazing stuff.
Alan Smith
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