Quick Show Wrap Up

I'm back home, and once again, Art Brut gave an exciting, high-energy show. Eddie's shaved off his moustache, so the Bryan Ferry "Let's Stick Together" vibe is not as strong as it had been, but he's still got something of the low-rent lothario about him. He hit many of the familiar notes--everybody should start a band, stay off the crack--and he still hasn't seen his new girlfriend naked for a third time. There were a couple of new songs and, as Eddie called them, "unrecorded songs," which he can't call new to this audience because the band has been visiting Chicago too often and we've already heard them. The new material sounds good on the surface, but we'll have to see how they sound in the studio. I was a bit worried because after the first album but before the band arrived in the States, guitarist (and sometimes described as "songwriter") Chris Chinchilla left the band. Eddie Argos has also been referred to as a songwriter, so it's never been clear quite how the songs were created. Did Chinchilla provide some and Argos others? Were the songs developed by the entire band? We'll only get a real suggestion of that when the new material is laid down in ones and zeros, but the hints we got of the new material tonight make me quite optimistic.

By the way, after the show was over, I noticed a number of people who could well have bought Marquee Moon and Rattus Norvegicus as new releases.