Concert promoters ‘This Feeling’ have announced that they are bringing Gen And The Degenerates back to Brighton to play an intimate gig at the ever popular Green Door Store. The date in question is Friday 7th October and support on the night will come Brighton’s finest LibraLibra and also Joanna & The Dropouts. You can purchase your tickets HERE.
Gen And The Degenerates were last in town on 9th April when they were the main support for Skunk Anansie at Brighton Dome. Here’s what we reported about their performance:
With an entrance as dramatic as their glam rock influences, Liverpool’s Gen and The Degenerates followed this up. Their debut single ‘Underwear’ opened their set in style, as trailblazing vocalist Gen put their sultry low voice into an ode to gender non-conformity. Nothing will rally a diverse audience quite like a band performing with the confidence of all the hair metal greats and asking “gender’s a performance: are you selling out the show?”
Throughout the set, Gen is a breathless whirlwind of sardonically feminine chaos, marching across the plinth laid out at the front of the stage with a don’t-f*ck-with-me attitude to accompany the snarling fuzziness of their blues-y guitar backing. Appropriately, their song ‘Famous’ matched this energy with true rockstar swagger, including from the rest of the Degenerates. By the final track ‘Burn Your Pedestals’, the duelling guitarists Sean and Jacob were headbanging along with the crowd as they shredded away at guitars revved up like F1 engines. Gen and The Degenerates are far from style over substance, though. Amidst the hard-rocking glory of their set, though, the gravity of topics like gender identity and abuse within the music industry ring out through their committed performance. The conclusion of ‘Girl God Gun’, for example, is an acapella ending that makes this declaration of pride in non-binary identity a strangely vulnerable act.
Gen & The Degenerates setlist:
‘Underwear’
‘Adore Me’
‘Famous’
‘Girl God Gun’
‘Wild Thing’
‘Burn Your Pedestals’
Find out more at www.genandthedegenerates.com
We recently caught up with LibraLibra at ‘RuinFest’ at The Hope & Ruin on 4th September. They were absolutely stunning! Here is what we reported:
LibraLibra (Downstairs Bar) 6:30pm
We whizzed back downstairs at 6:32pm and immediately LibraLibra started their 36 minute set, which concluded at 7:08pm. We have reviewed LibraLibra a few times before, one of these was here at The Hope & Ruin last December – Read our account HERE.
Back in 2020, the LibraLibra quartet of Beth Cannon (vox), Joe Caple (drums), Daniel Martell (guitar), and Guy Jones (bass and keys) released the ‘Panic Buy’ single as well as the six track ‘Hail Mary’ EP. However, this evening’s performance is their very first as a trio after the departure of Daniel Martell. Thus the format now is Beth (vocals), Guy sporting a striking cyan coloured suite on Squier 32 bass and bv’s plus Nord Grand keyboard, and completing the trio is Joe on drums and Moog Grandmother semi modular analog synth and Akai plus other box of tricks. It all looks rather impressive and tell you what…it is!
As with every previous encounter I have had with Beth, she truly belts her heart out. She really does give it her all as she feels every note and every lyric. Talk about should have won X-Factor or what! Not that you would ever catch me watching such drivel. Arguably the most powerful lungs in operation today! Her energy and enthusiasm is contagious and we feel as though today’s event has now really kicked off, especially as she was singing amongst the crowd.
LibraLibra are moving on and moving forward in an extremely positive way. They took the opportunity to debut some brand new tunes, such as ‘Sad Face’ (and the two final numbers) which I must report were all the choice tracks of the performance. They are heading in the right direction without a doubt. Joe’s drumming was quite frankly terrific. Their consistent set was an in-yer-face delivery that actually stopped passers by in the street as they stood and gawped through the large open street level windows at the band, and they stayed there for the duration of the set!
It’s really beyond me why this outfit isn’t bigger. The music industry needs to have a word with themselves. This is what it’s all about. I truly hope that someone brings the new material to the attention of a certain S. Raymonde Esq as I believe he will wish to release it! LibraLibra should really be off and heading towards denting the Official Charts. And so how would I best describe this outfit? Energy pop with a 21st Century punk vibe maybe. They are a versatile outfit that can switch from a 2am style Kate Bush/Ofra Haza sounding song to a borderline punk ditty. Even the final number which was getting its live debut tonight sounded in parts like ‘Here Comes The Night’ by The Them. LibraLibra are a truly theatrical outfit and it’s hats off to them! This is simply the best ‘LL’ performance I have seen to date and the new material will show this when released.
You can next catch LibraLibra performing live in Brighton, when they will be rockin’ on up at The Green Door Store on Friday 7th October in support of Gen And The Degenerates – I urge you to grab your tickets HERE. See you down the front!
We last saw Joanna & The Dropouts performing live at the Green Door Store back in 2020, where we reported:
Joanna And The Dropouts are first up at the ever popular Green Door Store in Brighton tonight. They deliver their fun surf punk come rock ‘n’ roll vibe to the early arrivals, eager to rid themselves of those winter blues.
‘Sold Your Soul’ is a solid opener which is followed by a pretty entertaining set which evokes everyone from The Cramps to Wanda Jackson. ‘Bad At Being Good’ and the instrumental ‘George Baby’ stood out, but they save their best for near last with the little groover ‘Broken Heart Gang’ with its earworm of a chorus.
Joanna And The Dropouts setlist reads:
‘Sold Your Soul’
‘Cross My Heart’
‘Sick In Love’
‘Bad At Being Good’
‘George Baby’
‘Mr Honey Pot’
‘Broken Heart Gang’
‘You’re So Cool’
Purchase your concert tickets for the forthcoming Gen And The Degenerates + LibraLibra + Joanna And The Dropouts 7th October Green Door Store concert HERE.
