ART BRUT + THE INDELICATES – CONCORDE 2, BRIGHTON 27.10.24
By definition, the term “art brut” translates from its French to “raw art”, and was coined by painter Jean Dubuffet, catering and acting as a point of view towards art that sits outside the academic paradigm, as well as being closely linked and occasionally used interchangeably with outsider art. Some sixty years after Dubuffet created this term, a handful of London punk enthusiasts clambered together a band that would achieve a cult following and acclaim for the next twenty years of their lives.
Art Brut formed in 2003 by Eddie Argos, original guitarist Chris Chinchilla and current lead guitarist Ian Catskilkin. Joined by Mikey Breyer on drums and long-standing bassist Freddy Feedback, the five-piece mutated over time and released a slew of noughties albums that contained a combination of art punk and garage rock, often self-reflective in lyrical content, topped with Argos’ half-sung, half-spoken vocal delivery. Their first three albums in particular, 2005’s ‘Bang Bang Rock & Roll’, 2007’s ‘It’s a Bit Complicated’, and 2009’s ‘Art Brut vs. Satan’ were released during the commercially fashionable heyday of garage punk, often sitting in comparison with groups like Franz Ferdinand and Bloc Party. Now consisting of Argos, Feedback and Catskilkin, drummer Charlie Layton and guitarist Toby MacFarlaine, 2024 has seen Art Brut journey across a 14-date tour across the UK and Europe, finding their home in Brighton’s Concorde 2 for a raucous Sunday night show courtesy of Love Thy Neighbour promoters.
Opening for Art Brut are an interesting group that have been circulating for almost as long as them, the Brighton-based The Indelicates. Formed by Julia and Simon Indelicate after meeting at a poetry slam night, the pair engaged in several artistic projects before forming The Indelicates in 2005. With various albums under their belt, their most recent only dropping at the start of October, ‘Avenue QAnon’, the duo now consist of drummer Benny Lewis and bassist Rhys Edwards.
Already, finding my home at the front barrier of the Concorde 2 for the night, I’m intrigued by the somewhat rough and somewhat unco-ordinated stage design: several boxes of DI and cable storage left open on the stage, Julia’s keyboard stand taped down to its mother instrument, and most bewildering of all, a hired drum kit, with the hire’s name and details advertised in full naked view on the kick drum head. Before long, the simple acoustic guitar chords from Simon open the set’s introduction track ‘Cold War Bop’, with lyrics about Facebook propaganda reposted by family members setting the topical tone for the set pretty quickly…! The song itself is surprisingly quaint and twee-tinged, infused with a bittersweet chord progression and slick key change. As the audience applauds, Simon states “I love nostalgia, it’s a capitulation to the gods of death” before transitioning swiftly to ‘Sixteen’. This track features some remarkably theatrical vocal melodies from Julia with her vocal tone reminding me of a cross between Joanna Newsom and Regina Spektor. The band’s internal madness begins to seep through to the song’s closing moments as they count the titular age upwards sequentially from 16 to 45 as a climax!
‘We Are the Carbon They Want to Reduce’ is a particularly fun song in The Indelicates’ canon, laying on a bed of clapping and finger clicking from Benny in a 7/4 groove, while the song’s progression feels warm and optimistic despite the subject matter…! The more propulsive and thought-provoking ‘I Am Koresh’ (named after Waco siege spearheader and cult leader David Koresh), features some of the band’s most eye-opening lyrics of the set, with various religiously-connected figures being name-dropped in the title lyric’s fashion (replace “Koresh” with “Jesus”, “Shiva”, “Buddha” etc). The first of the closing three-song leg of the set, ‘There’s Something Goin’ Down In Waco’ is, by far, my favourite song The Indelicates gift us in their half-hour slot, even if this seems to be the second track in a row related to the Waco siege…!
With Simon now behind a Rickenbacker electric guitar, this track is sleazier and more misanthropic, giving me a slight ‘Rain Dogs’-era Tom Waits energy. The next track, ‘Everything English Is The Enemy’, contains a similar mood to the previous cut, albeit featuring the notions of poking fun at the downfall of English legacy, referencing flying Union Jacks at Glastonbury, Mr. Punch, and following a lyric mentioning a certain blonde-haired Top of the Pops-presenting scumbag with the phrase “we told you so!”. Ending on a brighter note, the song ‘ill’, brings all the happy warmth of a Belle and Sebastian track, with scatterings of Indelicates fans circling around me, singing along to the amazing final chorus that closes the song off. Their set was unfortunately cut short due to time constraints, but it’s safe to say that The Indelicates certainly left the Art Brut crowd in a state of quirk and ecstasy, waiting patiently for the next half an hour.
The Indelicates:
Simon Indelicate – guitar, vocals
Julia Indelicate – keys, vocals
Rhys Edwards – bass
Benny Lewis – drums
The Indelicates setlist:
‘Cold War Bop’
‘Sixteen’
‘We Are The Carbon They Want To Reduce’
‘I Am Koresh’
‘There’s Something Goin’ Down In Waco’
‘Everything English Is The Enemy’
‘ill’
At 9pm, the lights began to dimmer as the sound of Strauss’ ‘Also Sprach Zarathustra’, as famously used in ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’, swarmed through the speakers, prompting the walk-ons of Eddie Argos, Freddy Feedback, Toby MacFarlaine, Charlie Layton, and a fifth individual… I spoke to Eddie just after doors and he explained how Ian Catskilkin had to unfortunately return home following an emergency, prompting him to request Charley Stone, member of (holds breath) Keith Top of the Pops & His Minor UK Indie Celebrity All-Star Backing Band, who supported Art Brut the night before alongside Brighton art punkers KEG, if she’d join him and his cohorts for the show. Safe to say that her determination to learn 14 Art Brut songs in the space of a van journey from Brixton to Brighton is effortless! The band kick off the set with the power pop grooves of ‘Pump Up The Volume’; already from this opening track, you can see the unmatchable qualities in Art Brut that are difficult to not fall in love with, the garage rock sensibilities, the nonchalant vocal delivery, and the incredibly infectious chorus melodies!
‘She Kissed Me (And It Felt Like A Hit)’, was new on me as I only own ‘Bang Bang Rock & Roll’ on CD as of yet, but it seemed to be a catalogue classic as far as the fans were concerned, with Eddie’s stage presence so entrancing to watch. I must say, this song, like many other Art Brut songs, seems to have quite a sophisticated pop progression for a group of self-confessed punkers. The first of six tracks from ‘Bang Bang Rock & Roll’, ‘My Little Brother’ was quite a remarkable experience, especially considering how early in the set we are…! If the moderated lyrics to include being sent a YouTube playlist where every song has the same message of a cry for help weren’t enough, then the quiet bridging passage the band jams around was sure to win me over. During this section, Eddie regails us with the story of how his younger brother is now a teacher, after stating “if you ever write a song about a real person, do not put their age in the lyrics!”.
The song ‘Axl Rose’ is preluded with a comment on how Eddie, a Smiths fan, informed his brother, a Guns N’ Roses enthusiast on how he can’t listen to them because the singer is a racist… of course, his brother gets the last laugh there! Now, the five-minute bridge in ‘My Little Brother’ was certainly an adventure for the audience, and Art Brut themselves, but the near 8 and a half minute crouching endurance test during ‘Modern Art’ was a pure marathon! In that relatively questionable length of time, Eddie manages to include discussions and stories on fancying girls that went to art school, how Art Brut were once booked to play a 90 minute show with only 33 minutes of material actually released, stumbling on fridge magnets at a Van Gogh museum gift shop, and how the security guards at said Van Gogh museum were not fond of Eddie licking the paintings of ‘The Starry Night’ and ‘Sunflowers’, before getting the audience to “rock out to the thought of our favourite piece of art”.
‘Rusted Guns of Milan’ is a much needed, pacier comedown after the crouch fest of ‘Modern Art’, with Eddie taking the time to regain his energy, shirt half-buttoned and his flies down. Eddie informs us of how he wrote the lyrics to the next track, ‘St. Pauli’, outside Concorde 2 twenty years ago; he went to meet people in a pub in Germany, with the only phrase he knew in German being “punk rock ist nicht tot” (“punk rock is not dead”), which acts as the song’s main lyrical focus while he swings his microphone in full circle motions above his head.
‘Summer Job’ is where Charley Stone shines; it’s truly impressive how she was able to learn all these songs in mere hours before the show was set to commence! It’s at this song where Eddie also engages in some jump-rope, much to the sound engineer’s panic, before cracking up at how American crowds seem to believe that a P45, as referenced in the closing lyric, is actually a make of gun…! The songs ‘Bad Weekend’ and ‘Nag Nag Nag Nag’ are stellar moments in the set, with the latter being one of the more hyperactive tracks performed with some raucous dancing from fans in the front row!
Now, we come to the reason why I wanted to review Art Brut. While snooping through Love Thy Neighbour’s events list, I came across the band’s preview, with a particular hit of theirs linked as a track to listen to. The song? ‘Emily Kane’. This goddamn song is one of the best pop songs I’ve ever heard – it’s emotionally bittersweet, it’s gorgeously nostalgic for the mid-2000s and I can honestly say no other song of this kind has captured the despondent and heartfelt feeling of longing for a love that you can never have as potently as Art Brut have. Hearing this song live was absolutely wonderful, and was, by far, the high point of the night for me. Not only that, but at the point in the song where Eddie recounts how long it’s been since they last met, he interjects and tells us that shortly after the song was released, she got back in touch, in what can only be described as “the purest example of rock and roll”. Art Brut closes the main set off with ‘Wham! Bang! Pow! Let’s Rock Out!’, garnering a monumental audience reaction, especially from the front row as they engage in a call and response build up of the title lyric with Eddie towards the song’s finish line.
Calls for an encore shortly began to flood the room shortly after the band departed the stage, leading for those calls to be answered with a two-song epilogue. Starting with the archetypal Art Brut song, ‘Formed A Band’, Eddie continued to run rampant with totally feverish energy as his lyric on how they are “the band that writes the song that makes Israel and Palestine get along” stands overshadowed by his yelling demand for a ceasefire. Eddie Argos and Art Brut bid us a fond farewell with ‘Post Soothing Out’, one of the poppiest songs of their set with its iconic riff instantly recognised by fans.
Eddie jogs off the stage leaving his bandmates to rock out for the closing moments, adorned by the vigorous applause and cheers from the Concorde 2 crowd that sees them out. I had no idea what I was expecting from the camaraderie of an Art Brut show, but it’s safe to say that they far exceeded my expectations – I must commend these guys for truly being one of the most underappreciated acts of the mid-2000s, and continuing to win over new fans to this day with their quirks, angst and rock & roll.
Art Brut:
Eddie Argos – lead vocals
Charley Stone – lead guitar (filling in for Ian Catskilkin)
Freddy Feedback – bass guitar
Toby MacFarlaine – guitar
Charlie Layton – drums
Art Brut setlist:
‘Pump Up The Volume’ (from 2007 ‘It’s A Bit Complicated’ album)
‘She Kissed Me (And It Felt Like A Hit)’ (from 2018 ‘Wham! Bang! Pow! Let’s Rock Out!’ album)
‘My Little Brother’ (from 2005 ‘Bang Bang Rock & Roll’ album)
‘Axl Rose’ (from 2011 ‘Brilliant! Tragic!’ album)
‘Modern Art’ (from 2005 ‘Bang Bang Rock & Roll’ album)
‘Rusted Guns Of Milan’ (from 2005 ‘Bang Bang Rock & Roll’ album)
‘St. Pauli’ (from 2007 ‘It’s A Bit Complicated’ album)
‘Summer Job’ (from 2009 ‘Art Brut vs. Satan’ album)
‘Bad Weekend’ (from 2005 ‘Bang Bang Rock & Roll’ album)
‘Nag Nag Nag Nag’ (from 2007 ‘It’s A Bit Complicated’ album)
‘Emily Kane’ (from 2005 ‘Bang Bang Rock & Roll’ album)
‘Wham! Bang! Pow! Let’s Rock Out!’ (from 2018 ‘Wham! Bang! Pow! Let’s Rock Out!’ album)
(encore)
‘Formed A Band’ (from 2005 ‘Bang Bang Rock & Roll’ album)
‘Post Soothing Out’ (from 2007 ‘It’s A Bit Complicated’ album)
