Stay off the crack! Art Brut @ 7th Street Entry 3/28/06

All photos from the Art Brut gig here. Slideshow here.

For a change we have words, audio, and visual... the complete interweb package for you! And even better, I'm not the one reviewing the show. We have a guest reviewer, my great friend Ryan, aka Anglophiliac:

Hello all.

The Rock'n'roll Star has offered me the distinct honor of "guest reviewer" for Art Brut, 3/28, Minneapolis, MN, 7th St Entry.

Let me start by saying I came to Art Brut with several conflicting ideas in my head. I was an early AB adopter, being an NME.com zombie, but their CD didn't exactly put me over the moon. I actually liked the wacky art design and impossibly complex color-the-squares insert more than Eddie Argos' shout-sing lyrics. But their driving guitars and amusing subject matter were irresistable and eventually won me over.

The quick verdict on the show: Excellent. (On my personal scale, "excellent" falls below "outstanding" (Arctic Monkeys, 3/18/06; Walt Mink, 6/05) and above "good" (Electric Six, 3/24/06), while "average", "poor" and "Dandy Warhols live" complete the rest of the downward rankings.) They opened, appropriately enough, with "Formed A Band" which operated as a theme for the rest of the show as Eddie exhorted the members of the audience to form their own bands. Maybe I will, Eddie, maybe I won't . . . Can you have a band where the leader plays only the stereo? But I digress . . .

Their energy and enthusiasm were top-drawer. **Rule of a good show: At some point in time, every member of the band is smiling.** Ian with his hair-homage to The Cure was crisp and efficient, and Jasper with his new-wave skinny tie con turned-up collar made effective energetic bookends for Eddie's sock-footed antics. Standout tracks included "Moving To LA", the crowd interactive "Modern Art", and the tour-de-force of "Emily Kane" and "Bad Weekend". Even the obligatory b-side and new track were good. This is a band that knows what it's about. I wasn't annoyed like I would have been by virtually any other band that self-referenced in every song, nor was I wishing they would 'change it up' and offer us a longer track or acoustic number -- I liked every two-minute burst of energy as delivered. These guys and gal have obviously done their homework. They owe equal parts of their songwriting to the jangly Kinks of the mid-sixties "Good Weekend", and the self-indulgent, smirking of The Who, circa 1976, "Rusted Guns Of Milan" sprinkled with [insert your favorite punk band here] of the late 70's. While my musical universe wasn't expanded, my live show jones was well satisfied and my $10 was in no way wasted. Go see Art Brut (and, according to Eddie, form a band . . . ).

My thanks to Steve for the guest reviewer slot - especially since he was standing right next to me for the whole show and almost took an elbow to the nose for the team (from one of the pungent grungettas dancing in front of us). Look for more of my philosophical/musical ramblings as often as he'll let me contribute.

Regards

The Anglophiliac

Ryan, I mean Anglophiliac, love your review, thanks! I love my friends... Did we mention it was an AA gig and we couldn't even drink in there? Crazy...

Just a couple of other things I'd like to mention:

Solace it was nice to meet you! You rule! Brody... you can see your head well represented in the YouTube video.

'Twas a great show! The highlight for me was "Modern Art" when lead-singer-dude jumped in the crowd (see pictures). 2nd highlight was talking Deutsch to some of the band members after the show... classic; it scared some people around me...

mp3: Art Brut - Modern Art

And here's a video I filmed at the show "Emily Kane" (sorry about the sound quality)... Still pretty cool I think:



Anything to add? Let me know in the comments!

Prost!

Steve

P.S. "Dandy Warhols bad"... LOL Ryan! Classic...

P.P.S. Set-list below: