CALVA LOUISE + KID KAPICHI + SHORT PEOPLE – THE PRINCE ALBERT, BRIGHTON 13.03.19
I already own a copy of the terrific ten track debut Calva Louise album ‘Rhinoceros’ which hit an unsuspecting world on 1st February, and so I am already under the spell of their charismatic Venezuelan born singer Jess Allanic. Turns out that she upped her roots and moved to France in her teens and it was there where she met bassist Alizon Taho with whom she eventually travelled to the UK, where drummer Ben Parker joined the picture.
The rising trio are sure building up a fine reputation and have already secured support slots alongside the likes of Albert Hammond Jr, Spring King and Anteros and recently finished an extensive UK tour with label-mates The Blinders. Ah ha so that’s where drummer Ben picked up his Blinders t-shirt that he was proudly wearing this evening.
So it’s fair to say that things in the Calva Louise camp are particularly fine and dandy at the moment. It’s not often that you get a debut album and all of the tracks on the platter are great and thankfully this evening at a sold out Prince Albert, we oh so very lucky punters were treated to a full set of CL songs. Well that’s what we were informed by Jess, but obviously she had forgotten about track nine on the album ‘Down The Stream’, which I’m sure I didn’t hear. Maybe it was the emotion of being the final night of their debut UK headlining tour, who knows.
The London based trio were well in tune with each other this evening and their performance was hot, just like the temperature in the packed first floor room. Their tunes were fast and in between a majority of compositions Jess liked to have some banter with her adoring public. Now talking of adoring public, I would at this stage actually like to point out that the whole of the front row was now a mass of photographers, aiming their large lenses at the group. Clearly the word is now out that this is a band to watch out for in the immediate future.
This is clearly a consistent band as half of their albums ten tracks are already being plugged by decent YouTube videos. We have ‘Getting Closer’, ‘I’m Gonna Do Well’, ‘Outrageous’, ‘I Heard A Cry’ and ‘Tug Of War’ which puts them in very good stead indeed. Musically they can be likened to the fabulous Estrons with a helping of the Spanish chicas Hinds and Jess sure can give out a hell of a scream with the assistance of their sound engineer. So to quote one of their singles ‘I’m Gonna Do Well’, yes they sure are!
Calva Louise setlist reads:
‘I’m Gonna Do Well’, ‘Outrageous’, ‘Tug Of War’, ‘Out Of Use’, ‘I Heard A Cry’, ‘No Hay’, ‘Wondertail’, ‘Adelante’, ‘Cruel Girl’, ‘Belicoso’, ‘Getting Closer’, (encore) ‘Eleanor’.
Listen to Calva Louise HERE and find out more about the trio HERE.
Future rock heavyweights Kid Kapichi were the main support act this evening and they hail from along the coast in Hastings. Tonight they had brought a sizeable support along with them, with many fans sporting the bands distinctive “Too Young To Die But I’m Gonna Try” t-shirts and singing along to every word. They even had their own mosh-pit going on. It’s fair to say that the Hastings posse were well up for it tonight.
The band are fronted by Jack Wilson and Ben Beetham (joint lead guitar/vocals), with the other half of their ear-shattering sound emanating from George Macdonald (drums) and Eddie Lewis (bass). Having previously shared the stage with the likes of Slaves, Fat White Family, Fizzy Blood and Pretty Vicious; then it’s not a surprise to say that musically I would place them somewhere in the middle of IDLES meets Lenny Kravitz.
Clearly Kid Kapichi is a name that will be hotly touted on the UK live music circuit and Calva Louise’s Jess was raving about them with her South American charm by informing the crowd that they have made friends for life, having toured with the guys.
Kid Kapichi surely put in a fair amount of energy into their pleasing nine song set and were successfully pushing their recent releases ‘2019’, ‘Revolver’ and ‘Puppet Strings’ as well as their forthcoming ‘Glitterati’ single. I expect these guys to somewhat follow in the footsteps of Fontaines D.C and the aforementioned IDLES.
Kid Kapichi setlist reads:
‘Intro’, ‘Take It On The Chin’, ‘Revolver’, ‘Glitterati’, ‘Jack Jones’, ‘Puppet Strings’, ‘Waster’, ‘2019’, ‘Death Dips’.
More info on Kid Kapichi HERE and watch their locally filmed new video HERE.
First up tonight were Brighton’s very own Short People, who are Rich Fownes (guitar/lead vocals), Sam Morris (acoustic guitar/vocals), Tom Nichols (bass), RV Monroe (piano/vocals) and William Jack Parker (drums). It’s very likely that the band got their name from the Randy Newman tune of the same name, which can be found on his 1977 ‘Little Criminals’ album. Newman’s single peaked at No.2 in the US Billboard Hot 100 and it was kept from reaching No.1 by Player’s ‘Baby Come Back’ and the Bee Gees’ ‘Stayin’ Alive’.
Tonight’s audience were warmed by the bands eight song performance, which set the tone nicely for the evening. Whilst they were playing I was desperately trying to decide who they sound like and all I could come up with was elements of certain 10cc compositions. They have the feel of pre-punk band, so maybe that’s where the Randy Newman bit fits in. They say they are like the Violent Femmes, so who am I to argue.
The Short People setlist reads:
‘Something Sweet’, You Know I’m Weird’, ‘Stress Is A Killer’, ‘Something Savoury’, ‘Free Love In The 60s’, ‘Hormones’, ‘Fix My Fidget’, ‘666 Soul Stew’.
More info on Short People HERE and listen to them HERE.
Throughout the whole of tonight’s concert, I was standing virtually right at the front behind the row of photographers and right next door to me was this guy that was frantically etching the groups in his notebook. I was truly amazed how he was managing to get the bands details captured so fast onto paper as a snapshot in time. He produced many drawings throughout the night and he has kindly agreed to share three of them with us. His name is Chaz and you can see many more of his fab illustrations by visiting www.chazwilldraw.com
