Live Review: Art Brut, Keg + Keith TOTP at Electric Brixton, London

So here I find myself once more stood by the front of the stage at an Art Brut gig, camera in hand, smile spread widely across my face. How many times have I been here before? I’ve lost count. The stages have grown since I first encountered them at The Buffalo Bar (RIP) in 2003, and the significance of these shows has morphed with time too. Where once they were a solo foray into unknown territory, discovering this unusual fresh new band and their talk-singing frontman, their shows now combine sonic time travel, as twenty-one years of tunes that have made their home in my amygdala transport me back to the first time I heard them, with a reunion of friends, many not seen since we gathered for last year’s London show at Heaven.

But before we get into all that, another familiar face (or ten). Keith Top Of The Pops And His Minor UK Indie Celebrity Allstar Backing Band have for once found a stage large enough to comfortably hold them, and despite falling victim to the obscene 6.45pm start time inflicted on us by an early curfew necessitated by a reggaeton club night that will follow this evening’s show, they’re having a whale of a time, and we’re soon swept along too – how can you not enjoy a band with six lead guitarists and a horn section? And with a line-up that features genuine indie legends Les Carter and Charley Stone, alongside members of Joyzine faves Ciccone, The Boyfriends, The Wimmins’ Institute, Luxembourg, GUTTFULL and more backing up Keith’s snarky lyrics, they make the early dash out of the front door and quickly snaffled train station meal deal it took to arrive on time worthwhile.

One can only assume that one of the key criteria laid before the person responsible for booking tonight’s support acts must have been to include as many musicians as possible, as following on from Keith TOTP’s 20 legged indie battalion come Keg, with a comparatively modest seven members.

I’ve been looking for some time for the next new band who are going to blow my socks off and lead me spiralling into my latest musical obsession, and the signs were looking positive for Keg to take on that baton – Joyzine co-editor Paul F Cook is a fan, they’ve clearly got a liking for Talking Heads without sounding like a tribute act, are signed to the reliably wonderful Alcopop! Records and I do love a band with a seemingly random instrument thrown into the guitars/bass/drums/synths mix (in Keg’s case a trombone). Having enjoyed what I’d heard online I braced myself for impact as they entered the stage, but could they possibly meet my lofty expectations? Not quite. There’s plenty to like in a set that rambles from spiky post-punk to whiffling prog rock, and there are moments when it all comes together in pin-pricks of pure cochlea tickling perfection, but they’re not yet frequent enough to leave you with that feeling that you’ve just been kissed full on the lips by your new crush.

My favourite points occur when there’s an edge of tension between the seven components, when it feels like everything could fall apart at any moment but never quite does, and are often those where the trombone features more heavily (or indeed when trombonist Charlie Keen vocalises through his mute). I’ll be keeping an eye and an ear out for what comes next – sometimes it’s the bands that take their time to earn your affections that hit you deeper than those you fall in love with at first sight.

And speaking of long-term musical relationships, we reach tonight’s headline act, Art Brut. Some years ago I covered a show by Jim Bob at The 100 Club – I had a passing familiarity with his solo work and while I loved Carter USM, I’d been just a couple of years too young to catch them live first time round (thankfully remedied when they reunited in the late noughties) – if I’m entirely honest I was more there to see support act Chris T-T. However as soon as his set began I was struck by the warmth of the atmosphere in the room, the clear affection shared between audience and performer and the sight of a room full of people in their late thirties and early forties embracing, emoting, even openly weeping. There was an openness, a connection, a togetherness that night which I’ve experienced only on rare occasions in twenty plus years of covering live music. Tonight it strikes me that as I’ve reached that age bracket myself, Art Brut have become that band for me and many people packed into Electric Brixton tonight. It’s a love in, both for the band and the crowd, and it seems I can barely walk a few steps without bumping into an old acquaintance.

Tonight’s show is part of a tour of England and Germany tied in with the recent release of a box set (which I reviewed here) and best of compilation, so we’re very much treated to the hits (not that Art Brut have ever been the kind of band to eschew crowd favourites in favour of new material anyway). It doesn’t matter that we’ve heard these songs hundreds of times before (indeed that may actually be the point), it doesn’t matter that frontman Eddie Argos and lead guitarist Ian Catskilkin are the only remaining members of the original line up, it doesn’t matter that enough time has passed that Argos has to make wry lyrical alterations to some of their older tunes that included now defunct cultural reference points – this band and these songs have become ingrained. They are part of us and we have become part of them.

But why Art Brut, out of the thousands upon thousands of bands that have poured their soul into my lugholes over the decades? There are of course multiple factors, most of which are probably so deeply buried in my subconscious that extracting them would be impossible without some kind of psychological heavy drilling apparatus, but one that always stands out for me is that Argos and co. clearly love music just as much as we do and believe in its power to change us. It’s peppered throughout their discography with references to favourite musicians, borrowed or tweaked lyrics from the pantheon of those who came before them and tonight as at every other show I’ve seen them perform, the entreaty to every member of the audience to go home and form a band of their own.

That’s not to give the impression that this is some kind of closed shop, a cultish clique in which all outsiders are shunned. A new generation of Art Brut fans have come to the band via the current crop of talky-shouty indie punk bands that have risen to prominence, in many of whom echoes of Art Brut can be heard, and they’re happily pogoing and talk-shouting every word along with the rest of us.

It can’t be easy being a musician in Art Brut – Argos is a capricious soul, prone to ripping up the set list on a whim and pausing mid-song for (often extremely entertaining) asides, while the band play on in the background waiting for their cue for the chorus to kick in. We’re given updates on his little brother (who in 2004 had just discovered rock and roll) and Emily Kane, are taken on a fantastical tour of the DC Comics headquarters in a hallucinatory mash up of ‘Modern Art’ and ‘DC Comics & Chocolate Milkshake’, and even pause for a mid-song q&a session at one point, while much fun is had with a bass drumhead featuring an advert for the hire company that provided the kit. The band, to their credit, never miss a beat and before long we’re straight back in pure indiepop euphoria.

A three song encore comes to a close with Argos proclaiming “We are Art Brut, you are all Art Brut”, gesturing into the crowd, and that in a nutshell is what makes nights like this so special.