EUPHRASIE COLLECTIVE PRESENTS BUG TEETH, DH TEMPLE & BROADS
So, yeah, however hard I try I just end up getting myself in knots and have no idea how to describe this other than life affirmingly superb.
Like the Arts Centre, St Edmund Fishergate is a deconsecrated church. Deconsecrated in the 50s and having been used as a paper warehouse, it has not been turned into a dedicated performance venue. And yet, it is a decent space that, thanks to the dedication of promoters Euphrasie and the quality PA they’ve brought in, sounds great.
First up is BROADS, an act I last saw in 2015 (!) and whose recorded work I’ve praised in these pages. In all honesty, I’m not a big fan of electronic music in the live setting. Much as I love the music in the sanctity of my home, someone nodding their head whilst pressing buttons doesn’t - usually - do it for me. One way around that is to have a great light show. have There’s projectors courtesy of Euphrasie but they don’t quite work this early in the evening, given the daylight streaming through those BIG church windows but full marks for trying. Anyway, Broads’ beats electronics are interesting and inventive enough to keep my attention. If this set had been played after dark with those projections it may well have been next level amazing.
DH TEMPLE is Dom Temple backed up by Miles Lukoszevieze, both of the rather brilliant Red Mar. Like Red Mar (based on the one time I have seen ’em), things are a bit Batcave ’82 which, for this old goth, is a Very Good Thing. Dom’s look is a mashup of early 80s Andrew Eldritch and late 70s Pete Murphy, albeit without the make-up or hair dye. The sound brings to my mind early Sisters or Eldritch’s Sisterhood with a dash of Alien Sex Fiend in their electro-remix phase topped off with vocals that range from that Murphy’s bellow to a falsetto. One song features sampled backing vocals that could be Julianne Regan’s cameos The Mission. For more contemporary comparisons, there’s some Faint/Rapture style punk-funk, a touch of The xx and at least one Billie Eilish-style duh. I thoroughly enjoy the first 20 minutes but, maybe because it is hot in here or because I can barely see Dom and Miles, my attention starts to wander. Whatever, this is promising and I want to see and hear more.
I’ve seen BUG TEETH a fair few times, be it solo, duo or, as tonight, a full band performance and I’ve been a fan from the very first show I caught. Every performance is better than the last and, true to that form, tonight is the best one yet. There’s a welcome theatricality, with a solo ambient intro before each band member gets on stage until, by song three, the full five piece are rocking out. This is a multi-talented lot with all bar the bass player taking at least two different instruments during the set. The sound? Well, it is kinda shoegaze, kinda dreapop but not really either. It is ethereal yet substantial, melancholy but euphoric. One song even mixes hula with western swing before going post-rock. So, yeah, however hard I try I just end up getting myself in knots and have no idea how to describe this other than life affirmingly superb.
