Tonight, Concorde 2 is surrounded by freezing weather, but it feels as though something has injected a few rays of summer inside for Crystal Fighters’ visit to headline the venue. Like a summer festival, the girls are clad in dungarees, floral prints and plaited hair, whilst some of the boys dance around topless in a far too sweaty way to bear in such a densely packed venue. As the band take to the stage, the crowd are unwilling to let this gig go lightly and many a beer is dropped and head elbowed as the first drumbeats of “Solar System” kick the gig off and into a frenzy.
It feels as if some sort of rhythmic acid trip is being experienced within the crowd as everyone moves together, sings together and watches this swaying polyphonic group on the stage, all covered in sequinned veils for the first couple of songs of the night. I don’t think many people expected drums this loud and bass this heavy either, but everyone quickly swaps their indie-bopping hats for the moshing kind and joins in the fun.
“At Home” and “Plage” reinforce the band’s ability to make a whole room sing along with all their will, yelling all the catchy bits (No no no/No no no/No no no/No no no/No no no/No no no/ Yeah yeah/Yeah yeah) and waving hands enthusiastically. One boy got ‘hand happy’ and punched his best friend in the face, but later they were cuddling.
Post-gig, band member Gilbert Vierich told XYZ that Brighton was his favourite date of the tour so far. Flattery or not, the night was certainly memorable, as everyone reluctantly piled out of the venue, still singing their own renditions of the bands’ songs.
Audience responses ranged from ‘awesome’ to ‘electrifying’, with a somewhat unexpected ‘compelling’ thrown in for good measure. One boy claimed his bleeding face was due to the power of the band’s music as opposed to a random elbow thump – we might never know…
Keep up to date with Crystal Fighters: crystalfighters.com
View and book upcoming events at concorde2.co.uk
Words by Shira Rossiter
Photography by Ian Greenland at greenlandphotography
