Bring Me Tea! Bring Me Coffee!

Art Brut
Academy 3, Manchester
Monday April 27th 2009

...So shouts Eddie Argos on Art Brut’s latest single, Alcoholics Unanimous. Similarly, it is what many here will be shouting the morning after the band’s quite frankly riotous performance at Academy 3.

Argos and company have always been somewhat ignored by large portions of the UK (excepting that time Argos got into a fight with I-can’t-even-remember-who and a well known music publication decided this was NEWS), despite writing album after album of anti-anthems for anyone who understands an awkward indie youth.

Inimitable and amusing lyrics aside, they are also the band it is practically impossible to watch sober. They seem to inspire drunkenness so much so that my fellow Motelier is shocked that I’ve taken on reviewing responsibilities tonight, informing me that I will not remember enough of it.

Opening with the aforementioned Alcoholics Unanimous, it is immediately clear that Art Brut don’t need widespread acclaim. At least the front third of the crowd is already clamouring to cram as close to the band as possible. In fact, it doesn’t take long before around 50% of the room has abandoned all sense of self and instead turned into a seething mass of shouting idiots. The song which is responsible is the marvellous (if somewhat frightening on a stalker level) Emily Kane.

Typically, Argos intersperses his anecdotal lyrics with minor additions: “# I don’t even know where she lives # – except that’s a lie. I do actually,” all of which the crowd finds highly amusing, whether they actually are or not. It’s all in that deadpan, unabashed tone of his, like he’s confiding embarrassing secrets to us. It’s OK Eddie, we’ve all been there. Or at least if we haven’t, you make us feel as though we have.

The set is heavy on new material (with some of the 'Motel and Friends' delegation unhappy about the exclusion of 18,000 Lira and Formed A Band), but this does nothing to dampen the energy of the hyperactive crowd (though the sweat levels are definitely dampening clothes). The title track of record number three, Art Brut vs Satan, is already a classic with its self-deprecating cry of “# The record buying public/We hate them! #”

DC Comics and Chocolate Milkshake is possibly the geekiest thing the band have ever written, thus meaning it goes down incredibly well. To be honest the night begins to pass in a haze; a haze of grinning, of shouting lyrics, of starting chants ("Art Brut! Sex is on Fire!"), of forcing fellow Motel correspondents to crowd surf - generally, the kind of behaviour far more closely linked to the gig-going habits of this punter circa 2001.

It may be a rare occurrence now, but it’s a lot of fun. Art Brut, I’d like to thank you, for creating a live experience like no other without even needing to try too hard.

words: Hannah Bayfield

Art Brut vs Satan is out now on Cooking Vinyl.

www.artbrut.org.uk
www.myspace.com/artbrut