I don’t go to ‘gigs’ that much anymore. So much so that even the word ‘gig’ makes me cringe with it’s approaching-an-age-where-you-shouldn’t-be-going-to-gigs-anymore-ness. Anyway I was lucky enough to get to go and see Reverend and the Makers in Brighton last night (thanks to Toby for the ticket).
When trying to think how I’d describe them I realised how hard it must be to be a music writer. All I can think about is how they’re like mash-ups of lots of different stuff, which just shows my limited musical vocabulary.
Lead singer ‘The Reverend’ takes the poet and the rock godness of Jim Morrison and fuses it with the twitching intensity of Ian Curis, via the baggy swagger of Liam Gallagher or Ian Brown. Their sound draws from all kinds of places LCD Soundsystem-esque cowbell workouts but with the humour and wit of the Arctic Monkeys. The low slung lazy-manc-funk of the Stone Roses updated with an electro edge. Sometimes the beats are close to skittering drum and bass patterns, othertimes its more like punky ska. Street poetry morphs into the politicised bastard child of Billy Brag and one of the Daft Punk robots.
You’re probably none the wiser. So here’s the best live footage I could find (from their support slot with The Arctic Monkeys last year)…
I’m pretty sure that these guys are about to get huge – not because I’m a great predictor of trends, but because they’re awesome (plus the fact I heard them on Asda’s in-store radio on Sunday which suggests something).
Plus the (very little) kids like them:
More on MySpace.
Their own page.
Or there’s a very informative page on Wikipedia.