Concorde 2, 15th December 2009
They were a long way from their home town of Detroit in the United States, but Electric Six nonetheless seemed right at home on stage at Brighton’s Concorde 2. Their sheer comfort with themselves and their music was evident by Dick Valentine’s crowd banter and comedy routines between each track.
If a little lacklustre at times, their catchy disco funk rock riffs and bass lines always got the crowd moving. Alike to the music itself, the audience seemed to be composed of many different parts and styles; there were the punks, the teeny-boppers the rockers the mods and the occasional drag queen.
This interestingly mixed crowd demographic is perhaps symptomatic of Electric Six’s many musical exploits which have come together to form a 70s-style funk beat, overlapped with a hard edged punk guitar sound and Valentine’s warped yet rock ‘n’ roll sounding vocals. Dick Valentine was undoubtedly the hero of the night and was ultimately the redeeming feature for his mid-level band, that has essentially struggled to really break through into the big time ever since their debut with ‘Danger! High Voltage’ back in 2003.
With his suave stage presence and willingness to engage and entertain his audience you got the impression that we were, dare I say it, a family. If you can see past his level of flattery for Brighton’s venues and audiences, you see that this is a man who is genuinely happy to play here.
“…out of the goodness of our hearts, we started here, we didn’t release Fire [their debut album from 2003] in The States, or Australia, or France, or fucking Kenya, we released it here first, in Brighton, FOR YOU! I will barely forget that!”
The first crowd surfers of course emerged with the hit single ‘Gay Bar’. With its defining opening riff appearing as if from nowhere, shocking the young hooligans into action, the only other track that brought out similar madness was the now cult disco rock anthem (if there is even such a thing) ‘Danger! High Voltage’.
It was an evening of thoroughly unpretentious, funky dance rock which was well performed, well received and always left you wanting a little more. Whether or not that is a good or bad thing, I will leave to you.
Words by James Rowland
Photos by Rosy Johnson
electricsix.com
What did you think of the gig?
Walnut: 6/10 “I follow them everywhere and I’ve seen them a lot, but this wasn’t one of their best shows, let’s get on it!”
Chris: 9/10 “I thought it was well done, but only a nine out of ten because none of us are getting laid right now, and we should be.”
Aine (right): 9.75/ 10 “Brilliant, I though the venue was perfect for them and the crowd responded really well.”
