CIRCE + METHOD ACTRESS + KASSAI – STICKY MIKE’S FROG BAR, BRIGHTON 8.3.18
Canned Tunes second “food-for-entry” charity gig project in aid of Brighton Food Bank took place last night (Thursday 8 March) at Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar in Brighton and the event was endorsed by the Brighton and Hove Green Party.
Described as “a truly innovative way of linking killer live bands with a practical solution of frontline charity”, Max Stern’s “Canned Tunes Noise Eater” event operated on the simple concept of food for entry.
We at Brighton and Hove News towers applaud such an innovative scheme to alleviate modern poverty in our city and at the same time allowing punters to catch the very latest up-and-coming bands for a great night of musical entertainment.
The bewildering statistics reveal that from Friday 1 April 2016 to Friday 31 March 2017 the UK food bank trust (Trussell Food Bank Network) provided 1,182,954 three-day emergency food packages to people in crisis, with 436,938 of these going to children.
This is the unfortunate state of Britain today and shows just how relevant and important organisations such as Brighton Food Bank are to the alleviation of modern poverty.
Food poverty in Brighton and Hove is a huge issue at the moment. Earlier this year it was reported that the Whitehawk food bank has seen a 62 per cent increase in referrals for emergency food supplies and a staggering 4,218 people are recorded as living in temporary accommodation or rough sleeping.
For more information, visit these websites
https://www.cannedtunes.co.uk/
http://www.brightonfoodbank.org.uk/
https://thewhitehawk.foodbank.org.uk/
http://www.bhcm.org.uk/teams/brighton-food-bank
Armed with our carrier bags of tinned tuna, tinned sweetcorn and various tinned soups, the Brighton and Hove News What’s On team ventured down to Sticky Mike’s for the evening.
With the ceiling of the stage decked out with real flowers in aid of International Women’s Day, the first act to appear amid the flora and fauna was Kassai, a noise pop band hailing from Watford. The band is made up of Chris Blunt, Mark McCarthy, Anthony Gavriel and drummer Janaki Anderson and they played a mighty fine in-depth set. The guys and gal are obviously decent sorts as they are also performing in their hometown Canned Tunes event at the very end of March – details here.
Further Kassai info can be found here and here.
Next up (after an unscheduled sound guy break!) were Brighton’s very own relatively new dreamy shoegaze band Method Actress. Who have risen like a phoenix out of the ashes of half of Morning Smoke.
Method Actress has seen the guys opt for a less noisy approach than their previous incarnation and being a little older they’ve cut their hair too. Thankfully the vocal sounds just as good as they have always been, especially on their Cure-esque track Point Of View.
Further Method Actress info can be found here, here and here.
Heading the bill was the terrific alt-pop band Circe, who are fronted by the charming Alexa, whose ethereal voice is something not to be missed.
Circe are also a new Brighton act. The competition locally is sure hotting up with all this wonderful musical talent right on our doorstep. It currently feels that every road in Brighton and Hove has a band in some form or another living there! The city is a true hotbed of talent.
Circe have released Under My Skin and my personal fave the truly hypnotic Blood And Wine, with hopefully more music on the horizon. Circe can be characterised by their talent in combining dark dramatic lyrics, brooding soundscapes and visceral meaty Novation synth bass to create an otherworldly dimension – as if Kate Bush was exploring the depths of the upside down.
You can catch Circe live at the Globe, in Middle Street, Brighton, on Thursday 15 March and then at the Green Door Store, Brighton, with Sick Joy, on Friday 23 March.