PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING + EERA – BRIGHTON DOME 25.10.21
This evening, the Brighton Dome was open for business and they were treating the attendees’ health and safety very seriously. Covid jab cards and/or the relevant NHS app had to be produced prior to entry. If you didn’t have either, then a lateral flow test was required. Queues were in operation and many masks were being worn, more than I have seen before. Thus entry took longer than pre-covid days and people just had to go with the flow. I noted staff wiping the door handles too. Clearly they had been expertly drilled on keeping people safe. This military precision was admired by a vast majority, whereas some felt that it was a little over the top.
Once inside, we purchased our much needed liquid refreshment and headed off to our seats in the circle in time for this evening’s opening act.
EERA is the project of the Berlin-based Norwegian singer, songwriter and guitarist Anna Lena Bruland. The Brighton & Hove News Music Team last witnessed a live performance from EERA on 18th May 2018 as part of The Great Escape new music festival, when she performed a showcase half hour set from 2:30pm to 3:00pm at Brighton Harbour Hotel. Our review of this performance in part stated thus “EERA’s mesmerising and gentle vocals were an absolute delight. Think PJ Harvey, Beth Gibbons et al and you’d probably be in the right ballpark. There is a lot of introspection in her songs, but they are beautifully delivered with a candid and charming honesty”.
EERA graced the stage at exactly 8pm. She was accompanied by a guy that according to my learned friend (Jack Wolton from Penelope Isles who was sitting in front of us) was Alistair from Last Living Cannibal. EERA was on lead vocals and guitar and Alistair was on keys and backing vocals, although they did swap instruments mid-set.
EERA has a distinctive vocal style that reminded me of Lana Del Rey. Her voice filled the auditorium. Initially, the set was quiet on the first number, but the second tune had a bit more oomph. I preferred it more when the droning keyboard was set in motion. For their last number, ‘Ladder’, they were joined by a drummer and bassist with EERA on guitar and Alistair on keys. This sounded like Moon Duo at the beginning due to the drums. Shame more of the set wasn’t like this as they came alive. ‘Ladder’ will feature on EERA’s forthcoming album titled ‘Speak’ and will be released on 3rd December. Pre-order your copy HERE. This will be the follow-up to her acclaimed 2017 debut, ‘Reflection Of Youth’.
A truly crisp sound was achieved throughout the 23 minute set. They vacated the stage at 8:23pm.
For more information on EERA visit www.eera.co.uk
Tonight’s headline act is Public Service Broadcasting, who I have amazingly never seen live before. The band are performing live at The Dome Concert Hall as part of their ‘Bright Magic 2021 Tour’. They formed back in 2009 and have now released their brand new album ‘Bright Magic’ – which peaked at No.2 in the official album charts – on 24th September 2021. You can order it HERE, including the gatefold limited orange/black marbled vinyl LP edition.
Public Service Broadcasting is a London-based outfit consisting of original founding member J. Willgoose, Esq. on guitar, banjo, other stringed instruments, samplings and electronic musical instruments. J. Willgoose, Esq. was then joined by Wrigglesworth on drums, piano and electronic musical instruments; and J F Abraham on flugelhorn, bass guitar, drums and assorted other instruments including a vibraslap.
The band have thus far released four albums, ‘Inform-Educate-Entertain’ (2013) which peaked at No.21 in the official album charts, ‘The Race For Space’ (2015) which got to No.11, ‘Every Valley’ (2017), which made it up to No.4 and ‘Bright Magic’ (2021) which almost hit the top but stalled at No.2. Clearly the band are getting the recognition they deserve as each album is getting a higher chart position than the previous one. So by all accounts, the next album (whenever that is) should get to No.1.
This evening, Public Service Broadcasting performed a 20 song set which commenced at exactly 9pm with a comical Public Service Announcement regarding mobile phone etiquette whilst the concert was being performed. This was swiftly followed by the full playing over the soundsystem of the absolute classic ‘Sound And Vision’ by David Bowie, which was a fabulous way to start a performance and they certainly set the bar high by doing this.
The band, all wearing spectacles (going for the Devo look then) and dressed in white graced the stage at 9:05pm. The trio of official band members (J. Willgoose Esq., Wrigglesworth and JF Abraham) were joined by support artist EERA on vocals and percussion, as well as a ‘fourth member of the band’, Mr B., who was credited with “production design and visuals”. Thus Mr B choreographs the retro-style video films and graphics which play on giant screens as a backdrop to accompany the music.
As one would expect, a majority of the latest platter was plundered, with no less than nine of the eleven cuts from ‘Bright Magic’ getting an airing. The remaining eleven tunes were culled from their previous output, with a trio coming from the 2017 ‘Every Valley’, four being plundered from 2015’s ‘The Race For Space’, two from the 2013 ‘Inform – Educate – Entertain’ album and the remaining two songs ‘Korolev’ and ‘White Star Liner’ can be found on each of their two EP’s.
The audience in the auditorium consists of a wide cross-section of the general public and this is to be expected as PSB are hard to categorize. One thing is for sure, in that they were all excited to be in attendance! This was rubber stamped by their rapturous applause at the conclusion of their 110 minute set, which closed at 10:50pm with the audience in the balcony roaring in approval and getting to their feet and thus joining those downstairs who were doing the exact same thing.
PSB began their set with the quiet film music-esque ‘Der Sumpf (Sinfonie der Großstadt)’ from the new LP. You immediately note just how good the light show is and how crisp the sound is. This was followed by ‘Im Licht’ with the use of the vocoder and then a corker arrived in the form of ‘Der Rhythmus Der Maschinen’, which has the taped vocal skills of German musician Blixa Bargeld of Einstürzende Neubauten and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds fame. Boy does he sound like former Kraftwerk member Wolfgang Flür. I particularly enjoyed the accompanying backing video on this of machines. To me, the music takes on a fuller experience when accompanied by a decent set of graphics and vintage historical filmettes.
‘Progress’ from 2017’s ‘Every Valley’ album was up next and the artists were joined by a white suited brass section trio consisting of sax, trumpet and trombone. EERA had vacated the stage for this number, but she is to return twice more during the set. ‘People Will Always Need Coal’, ‘Sputnik’ and ‘Korolev’ came and went and EERA returned for ‘Gib Mir Das Licht’ and ‘Blue Heaven’.
‘Spitfire’ found on the 2013 ‘Inform – Educate – Entertain’ album was up next and this was absolutely awesome! I really loved the sound of the keyboards on this as well as the cut-ups talking about the aeroplane. Things got rather rocky on the next number ‘All Out’, which was highlighting the fight of the miners during the strikes.
Normality was restored with the ‘Lichtspiel’ trio of tracks from the latest long player: ‘Lichtspiel I: Opus’, ‘Lichtspiel II: Schwarz Weiss Grau’ and ‘Lichtspiel III: Symphonie Diagonale’. The first of which reminded me of the works of M83 meets Sylvian & Sakamoto’s ‘Forbidden Colours’. The second of which ‘Lichtspiel II: Schwarz Weiss Grau’ had great use of the vocoder just like Kraftwerk. The third ‘Lichtspiel III: Symphonie Diagonale’ was quieter and melodic like the Gary Numan cover of the Eric Satie song ‘Trois Gymnopedies‘. The accompanying blue lasers were fab.
Two corkers from ‘The Race For Space’ album were delivered next, in the form of ‘The Other Side’ and ‘Go!’ along with accompanying videos and commentary of Apollo 8 and Mission Control and the like. The crowd really went for it during ‘Go!’ as arms were continually thrust into the air each time “Go” was mentioned.
At 10:23pm they vacated the stage for two minutes, during which time, I had worked out that there was an underlying almost prog like vibe in the ballpark of ‘Yes’ going on with PSB, but this didn’t detract from my and my girlfriends enjoyment as there is most certainly a Germanic Eastern European vibe going down with this lot. At 10:25 they returned and performed ‘White Star Liner’ from the EP of the same name. This was accompanied by the launch film of the boat of the same name. I’m sure there’s a hint of ‘Born To Run’ in there somewhere. There was great guitar work and drums on this track as well as the vocoder again.
EERA made her final re-appearance for the last three numbers – ‘People, Let’s Dance’, ‘Gagarin’ and ‘Everest’. Things got funky as pixelated dancers were grooving on the backing film to the Giorgio Moroder-esque and NIle Rodgers-esque tunes. This saw the return of the horn trio half way through, who also showed us their dance moves. Lately they were joined by a live dancing cosmonaut representation of Yuri Gagarin for the track ‘Gagarin’. The final number ‘Everest’ from ‘Inform – Educate – Entertain’ reminded me a little of ‘Enola Gay’ meets New Order on the beat.
All through this concert I kept asking myself why I hadn’t seen PSB live before. I have seriously been missing out. If they were to return to Brighton again, I most certainly will be there at the front of the queue.
A brilliant night out – thanks guys!
Public Service Broadcasting setlist (**performed with EERA):
“Public Service Announcement regarding mobile phone etiquette”
Intro track: ‘Sound And Vision’ (by David Bowie from 1977 ‘Low’ album)
**‘Der Sumpf (Sinfonie der Großstadt)’ (found on 2021 ‘Bright Magic’ album)
**‘Im Licht’ (found on 2021 ‘Bright Magic’ album)
**‘Der Rhythmus Der Maschinen’ (found on 2021 ‘Bright Magic’ album)
‘Progress’ (found on 2017 ‘Every Valley’ album)
‘People Will Always Need Coal’ (found on 2017 ‘Every Valley’ album)
‘Sputnik’ (found on 2015 ‘The Race For Space’ album )
‘Korolev’ (found on 2015 ‘Sputnik / Korolev’ EP)
**‘Gib Mir Das Licht’ (found on 2021 ‘Bright Magic’ album)
**‘Blue Heaven’ (found on 2021 ‘Bright Magic’ album)
‘Spitfire’ (found on 2013 ‘Inform – Educate – Entertain’ album)
‘All Out’ (found on 2017 ‘Every Valley’ album)
‘Lichtspiel I: Opus’ (found on 2021 ‘Bright Magic’ album)
‘Lichtspiel II: Schwarz Weiss Grau’ (found on 2021 ‘Bright Magic’ album)
‘Lichtspiel III: Symphonie Diagonale’ (found on 2021 ‘Bright Magic’ album)
‘The Other Side’ (found on 2015 ‘The Race For Space’ album )
‘Go!’ (found on 2015 ‘The Race For Space’ album )
(encore)
‘White Star Liner’ (found on 2018 ‘White Star Liner’ EP)
**‘People, Let’s Dance’ (found on 2021 ‘Bright Magic’ album)
**‘Gagarin’ (found on 2015 ‘The Race For Space’ album )
**‘Everest’ (found on 2013 ‘Inform – Educate – Entertain’ album)
Visit publicservicebroadcasting.net for further information.
They didn’t play Korelov (which I was gutted about). They played EVA.