ELECTRIC COWBOY CLUB + BRUXISM + B. SPANKS – GREEN DOOR STORE, BRIGHTON 29.3.24
On Friday night at the Green Door Store we enjoyed a return to indie gigs as they should be done. Suitably rough and ready, the venue was the perfect choice for all three of the night’s acts. Ostensibly a launch night for Electric Cowboy Clubs (E.C.C) EP ‘Rock N’ Roll Itch’, the night also featured support performances from London’s B. Spanks and Bristol band Bruxism.
Buzz has been building around the night’s headline act for some time, they are Brighton’s current ‘must see’ act. We have featured them on the site several times now, but it was my first time experiencing the band live, and they really MUST be experienced live. I had been forewarned about Electric Cowboy Club‘s exuberant front man’s stage and crowd antics, so I braced myself to expect the unexpected.
On arrival the anticipation of the audience was tangible. E.C.C themselves were already gathered with friends and supporters outside the venue when we arrived. Having selected our favoured spot in the slightly enclosed half walled area to the right of the stage we settled in. First support act of the night was B. Spanks. A single guitarist took the stage, and started to soundcheck. Nothing unusual there but, we were surprised to find it melded into the first set of the night from B. Spanks ‘When Will It End’.
If you like your early British punk, D.I.Y Punk and post punk say via the Buzzcocks or Wire (who B. Spanks later covers in the set) this is the man for you. A light touch and easy beginning to the night as a whole. The second song ‘Semi-Correct’, features an infectious repetition of the title as the lyric. It’s catchy old school style punk with up tempo riffs and the familiar punk bass and drumbeats. Having expected a full band, this individual musician set up (which the artist later described as “the budget version”) is in no way compromised, but then he has been performing solo for six years or so.
The fourth song ’When I Grovel’ has heavier rock riffs beats and with the rest of the set so far is pleasantly up tempo. A crowd has gathered, drawn in from the bar and plenty are applauding. Whether in anticipation or a humorous joke that might have been missed, B. Spanks has hidden applause in his backing track, you know ’just in case’, a clever move that he does not need either way.
The stage is, you could say, somewhat set for the next song in the set littered with balloons. “This one’s called ‘Burst Balloon’. You know what to do!”. I have no idea which band asked for them, but the audience took to the stage direction and immediately set about bursting balloons at once as they bounced back and forth throughout the performance. The next track’s a lot slower, speaks and nicely parred back. By now many more people have been drawn in to dance around in front of the stage, the atmosphere was playful and upbeat as was the next track. ‘This Ol Scab’ got the whole of the ensembled crowd moving in their favoured fashion, be it a gentle nod of the head or a more exuberant pogo around Think Ramones, but rockier. B. Spanks vocal delivery moves between speak-singing and more melodic, it suits the punk presentation. It’s expressive rather than the monotone drone that a lot of similar acts often fall into. The whole set is more upbeat pop-punk. The next song ‘Don’t Wanna Know’ was supposed to be the last before an encore he informed us. Rather than go through the usual rigmarole of the traditional false exit he goes straight into the last song of the set, a cover of ‘Sand In My Joints’ By Wire. A great end to a humorous and accomplished introduction to what will be a remarkable night.
B. Spanks setlist:
‘When Will It End’
‘Semi-Correct’
‘Fixation’
‘When I Grovel’
‘Burst Balloon
‘This Ol Scab’
‘Don’t Wanna Know’
‘Someone You Know’
(encore – segue way straight into)
‘Sand In My Joints’ (Wire cover)
Bruxism, econd support of the night self-described as a “Neo-Goth, Absurdist, Urban, Darkwave, Punk three-piece from Bristol”, took the stage after a short interval. Before the warmup, the lead vocalist removes her boots placing a pot plant in one and a pint glass in the other to make sure they don’t move from their new home at the front of the stage. Continuing the set barefoot, which is a bold move in any venue. The band prefer to withhold their names according to their 2023 Demo tape the band currently consist of a bassist, who utilises many effects pedals, a drummer and the lead singer. A backing track, and effects pedals were utilised on the night to great effect. The band state themselves as paying homage to Moëvöt, Trollheim and Deep Gnome. The first five songs of the night can be found on the 2023 demo.
Their musical style covers as many genres as they have listed on the demo tape. You may assume that this happens across several tracks, but somehow, they manage to deftly merge multiple styles and influences throughout each of the songs, which are more of a sonic journey to lose yourself in rather than something that’s instantly easy to pin down. This makes for an interesting immersive live experience. Vocally the lead and the bassist occasionally merge and sometimes clash tonally, the bassist being more punk, sometimes croaky and abrasive, sometimes part loud forceful punk in delivery in contrast to the lead singers smooth and deep register which was pure Goth by ways of my favourite of the Nouvelle Vague’s vocalists revolving roster Phoebe Killdeer. It crosses my mind that it would be interesting to hear the band cover Bauhaus’s ‘Bela Lugosi’s Dead’, as Killdeer has, even if that would be a little too on the nose for Bruxism.
The first song of the night ‘Take A Risk’ has a long intro, which reverberates around the venue achieving an unexpected depth of sound. The drums are suitably heavy in delivery breaking through the swimmy oscillations of the bass and keyboard backing track which have formed a dreamy, but slightly sinister undertone. The bassist delivers vocals on the chorus with the lead vocal.
Their second offering is more upbeat but still has the same pleasingly dirty undertones to it. The song is a cover of Joy Division’s ‘Warsaw’ initially almost unrecognisable for an instant before the drum beat and reverberating bass gave it away. Bruxism’s version of the track is decidedly more enjoyably grimy than the original.
‘Dark Fantasies’ speeds up the pace with a faster tempo in musical composition. The vocal is angrier and more forceful in delivery, crisper and cutting in tone. The backing vocal from the bassist is more fluid than before, breaking into full pelting scream towards the end of the track.
It’s become clear by this point that Bruxism prefers to segue from song-to-song rather than making a decisive break between them. This ensured that the listener was not jolted from the atmospheric blanket of sound that permeates the venue. ‘Vacate’, has a huge drum intro with the now familiar dirty bass underscore carrying the listener through, before the tempo speeds up again. Several members of the audience were thoroughly enjoying dancing along by this point whilst others contented themselves with a more sedate repetitive nod of the head.
Goth rock bass carries on through to ‘Saw The Bones’. Back to the deliciously chewy heavy drums and bass while the lead vocal veered between spoken and sung. Moving from slow tempo the song kept you on your feet and for me this was that stand out of an enjoyable set. By this point the dance floor in front of the stage was becoming very full as the crowd had moved in to see Bruxism up close. The song concluded with some great hefty thumps on the drums.
The last track of the set ‘I Saw God’ had some fantastic lyrics which brought a smile to my face. Moving into almost thrash metal then slow on chorus and then rocky again the song ended with a pleasingly loud drum thump and a slap of the bass while reverb drowned out too slowly. The band left the stage after the lead spoke for what I realised might have been the first time in the set, “Thank you, we are Bruxism”.
Bruxism:
Name withheld – lead vocals
Name withheld – bass, vocals
Name withheld – drums
Bruxism setlist:
‘Take A Risk’
‘Warsaw’ (Joy Division Cover)
‘Dark Fantasies’
‘Vacate’
‘Sew The Bones’
‘I Saw God’
If the tone of the venue had changed considerably between the two support bands, the main act of the night was about to blow the place apart. I had heard plenty of good things from keen music goers about Electric Cowboy Club (E.C.C) when I mentioned I was seeing them. On our pre gig meander to the venue we heard several retail vendors discussing attending the gig themselves, there was a palpable sense of anticipation and buzz when we arrived. Both support acts stayed on to ensure that they saw the final performance. The train of people vying for a prime position as near to the stage as possible started from the point that the second support vacated the stage. The area around us to the right of the main gig venue at the Green Door Store quickly filled to bursting as did every area of free floor available.
For the first time in a long while I was bracing myself for the movement of a mosh pit, taking up space and planting my boots firmly to the ground, getting ready to push back if need be.
The band members finally took to the stage, James Lissimore (guitar), Jacob Lenadd O’Shea (bass) and Wyn Harcourt (drums) taking up their respective instruments. Last to take the stage was lead vocalist Brandon Parker who had stationed himself in front of the stage facing his fellow band members, back to the increasingly fevered audience. From here on in things at once became frenetic to the point of frenzy both in the audience and on stage for the entire set.
‘Reality’, the first track started with a modulation to Parker’s vocal, which dissipated into screaming as quickly as he dived into the audience. Within no time of Parker joining the assembled throng and the whole of the venue in front of the stage and that surrounding was transformed into a huge mosh pit.
To describe Parker’s performance as frenzied is an understatement. ’78 RPM’, picks up the tempo if that was possible. Parker stays on stage, but the audience has already been whipped up and is showing no sign of slowing down. The rest of the band was moving, but only Wyn Harcourt, the band’s drummer, could come close to keeping up with Parker.
Surprise track of the night is a cover of the Scissor Sisters ‘Filthy/ Gorgeous’ played at breakneck speed and sounding like every note was quite literally filthy in the best possible way. Where Jake Shears et al trill into the chorus, Parker howls the lyrics like John Lyndon while twitching, writhing and snarling like Iggy Pop at his youthful height, indeed much of Parker’s performance owes a lot to Pop.
The next song ‘Creature’ is the first track from the new EP ‘Rock ‘n Roll Itch’. It’s the first of four tracks that the band play back-to-back. It’s during this song that I found myself nose-to-nose with Parker who has made his way from the stage stealthily towards us without me noticing as there is so much else going on around us. Before I knew it he vaulted over the wall towards us and landed in front of me on the floor where we all grouped together to get him upright again as quickly as possible.
As quickly as he’s appeared in front of us Parker is back on stage, where I spied the lead singer of Bruxism gleefully crowd surfing from the stage into the mosh pit. All hell seems to have let loose, but once I get my bearings, I realise that this is the kind of chaos that only a very skilled band can pull off.
During ‘Trippin (In A Locked Room)’ Parker doesn’t so much use the stage completely as use it to physically hurl himself from one side of it to the other as if jet propelled. This time he ends up near the sound desk much to the hilarity of the sound engineer as Parker pours water over his own head. The song is ‘Jungle Fever’, pure ‘Psychobilly’, or ‘Punkabilly’ if you prefer in musical delivery. Throughout the set James Lissimore on guitar and Jacob Lenadd O’Shea on bass maintain a calm centre to the maelstrom swirling around them.
Vocally this was also definitely more ‘Punkabilly’ in delivery with the growls, snarls and screams repeatedly reaching a frenetic high and that barely stops from start to finish of the set. The music was by now being delivered at breakneck speed; Parker spoke addressing the audience, but everything is so chaotic around us that it’s impossible to make out what he is saying and at one point he appears to be faux strangling himself with the microphone cable. Parker flung himself into and then back onto the stage as he sang ‘Ran A Red Light’ which has a fantastic bass line from O’Shea. Parker informed the audience that this is the “Last song, I wanna see you all MOVE!” I don’t think it would have been possible for the audience to move anymore than they had been for the entire set.
‘Maxine’ has a really slow mushy base at the start and was a welcome relief to the frenzy that had been relentless up until now. Somehow during this track Parker, back in the audience again made his way back over to where we were and crawled out to the bar area using everyone’s legs as a cover while applause from the crowd drowned out the guitar’s reverb wails. Although it genuinely looked like the band had given everything they had, chants of “One more!!!” reverberate around the venue and persuade the band to return. ‘Grapefruit Baby’ the last track of the evening ended on the frenetic high that is the trademark of an E.C.C performance and the band made a final exit from the sweat box they’ve created thanking the audience as they go.
E.C.C (Electric Cowboy Club):
Brandon Parker – vocals
James Lissimore – guitar
Jacob Lenadd O’Shea – bass
Wyn Harcourt – drums
E.C.C (Electric Cowboy Club) setlist:
‘Reality’
’78 RPM’
‘Train’
‘Filthy’
‘Creature’
‘Creep’
‘Trippin’ (In A Locked Room)’
‘Jungle Fever’
‘Coconut’
‘Ran A Red’
‘Maxine’
(encore)
‘Grapefruit Baby’
