LIP CRITIC + POLITE BUREAUX – DUST, BRIGHTON 2.9.24
My mate had come down from East Anglia in order to witness New York electronic punk quartet Lip Critic perform quite possibly their debut Brighton gig, but certain things didn’t go quite as planned!
It’s a drizzly Monday evening and Brighton seems very quiet indeed. There’s hardly anyone milling around the town, bar the line of drunks occupying the long bench in New Road and a trio of guys shouting their mouths off at a security guard in North Street. Tonight is not a good advertisement for our beloved city.
My mate, whose idea it was to attend the Lip Critic concert meanwhile, was feeling rather poorly and had to make a hasty retreat back to his hotel for the night and there was no chance that he was going to be able to attend the gig. I meanwhile made my way along to the Dust venue which is located in East Street and descended the stairs into the bowels of the club. The venue was sparse to say the least and everyone present could have fitted into the more compact Folklore Rooms or The Pipeline rather than the larger windows free club that is Dust.
Liquid refreshment purchased and I easily amble to the front to share some banter with the press photographers and local characters who I know are here in order to see this evening’s support artist. This leaves around 20 new faces that are likely here solely for Lip Critic. It’s a poor turnout, especially as the guys have come over the pond to play for us. But someone flagged up the £13.50 entry charge as being a little excessive and the band were selling the CD version of their ‘Hex Dealer’ album which dropped on Partisan Records on 17th May for £20. Clearly they had to endeavour to recuperate some finances from coming across from the USA. That’s not to say that it’s all profit for Bret Kaser, Connor Kleitz, Ilan Natter and Danny Eberle, who operate as Lip Critic, because all funds secured from their ‘Lip Critic II’ album, which came out in October 2020, have been donated to The Okra Project, which is an organization that provides financial support and meals to Black trans and non binary people. Plus in addition to that, Lip Critic were matching all donations up to $500. Purchase the album HERE.
Back in the venue and this evening’s support act Brighton based (via Bradford) Polite Bureaux grace the stage at 7:59pm. This being the brainchild of one Joseph Smith (Joe to his close mates) and he has been putting all of his energy into this growing project. The 14th March this year was a big day in the life of Joe as he dropped his confronting titled 12 track debut album ‘C*nt Monday’. It features the services of fellow in-yer-face artist Meryl Streek on one of the tracks. For live setups Joe calls on the services of Viv Maher on bass, Connor Griffiths on drums and drumpad presets, and sister Maya Lili on backing vocals. When I last saw Polite Bureaux Maya was also taking care of the Native Instruments Komplete Kontrol A49 synth, but this evening it appears that the electronic side of things are possibly stored in the Roland drumpads, that Connor taps at the start of the tunes.
Despite the missing synth (boo-hoo), the quartet look the part and more importantly sound the part! Connor to the rear of the compact stage adopts the standing playing position which looks seriously cool. Viv out front stage left (our right) certainly knows how to handle her Fender Mustang bass, and as you would expect, centre front is Joe who begins the set wearing his dads raincoat. Maya is a little further back and stage right (our left) and just seems a little lost with no A49 to stand behind!
Moving on, and they open with the first of a half dozen cuts from the album, this being its title track, which certainly lays out his stall, with a barrage of attacking lines about today, being what it seems to my ill mate c*nt Monday. ‘Dollars And Dimes’ is up next and swiftly followed by the wonderful tribal drumming tune that is ‘Stink’, which reminds me of Pop Will Eat Itself. The Run DMC-esque ‘Uamelon’ is selection four and the Sigue Sigue Sputnik intro sounding ‘Dirty Tw*t’ is the next selection. The energy continues with The Prodigy-esque ‘BodyRocker’ and they sign off with their classic ‘Broke Biscuits’ anthem, which although is also found on their album, tonight’s version is the new ‘Abbey Road Studios Alternative Version’. It still slowly builds like the original and to me still has a nod to ‘Love Is Everywhere’ by Cicero. Tonight’s 22 minute performance has been a short, but sweet….in fact VERY sweet set, and one I will hopefully be witnessing again when they return with a gig at the Green Door Store on 24th September, which will hopefully include the forthcoming ‘Mift’ single which although didn’t get an outing tonight will be dropping for purchase on 14th September. Snap up your gig tickets HERE.
Polite Bureaux:
Joseph Smith – vocals
Viv Maher – bass
Connor Griffiths – drums, drumpads
Maya Lili – backing vocals
Polite Bureaux setlist:
‘C*nt Monday’ (from 2024 ‘C*nt Monday’ album)
‘Dollars And Dimes’ (from 2024 ‘C*nt Monday’ album)
‘Stink’ (from 2024 ‘C*nt Monday’ album)
‘Uamelon’ (from 2024 ‘C*nt Monday’ album)
‘Dirty Tw*t’ (from 2024 ‘C*nt Monday’ album)
‘BodyRocker’ (from 2024 ‘C*nt Monday’ album)
‘Broke Biscuits’ (Abbey Road Studios Alternative Version) (original from 2024 ‘C*nt Monday’ album)
At 9pm on the dot, it’s now the turn of headliners Lip Critic to show us what they’ve got and see if all the amassed critical acclaim warrants it. The band’s eclectic style reflects the cultivation of the members’ earlier projects and is a singular mixture of classic punk/hardcore and electronic styles. It’s different, as is their setup, which is quite a bit like Scottish outfit Redolent’s format, with the electronics sitting atop the central tables and facing each other and either side of the stage are the two drum kits. Thus far, any band like The Glitter Band, Adam & The Ants, AK/DK and the aforementioned Sigue Sigue Sputnik that has a double drums configuration is just fine by me! It’s exciting to watch as two people unify in perfect synchronisation as they bash away at their kits and the sound is powerful too.
Tonight’s Lip Critic 37 minute set is one of 24 gigs across Europe and the UK in support of ‘Hex Dealer’ and it’s fair to observe that the outfit doesn’t fit neatly into any scene. Bret delivers his rapid fire soap box echo drenched vocals which are often delivered as hardcore shouts and growls, it’s a barrage of inaudible lyrics that clearly mean something, but the messages are lost on myself, and more than likely others in the small crowd. For me it’s nearly always the beat that gets me as opposed to the lyrics and the Lip Critic beats for the first couple of tunes sees me merrily bopping along with others down the front. My first notes read “If your body wasn’t moving after the first number and you were there, then you must be dead”.
A Lip Critic gig is a theatrical performance, which this evening is arguably being led by Connor, who whilst tapping away and the mini keyboards and small knobs in front of him also at the same time manages to limber up his body with a whole host of body stretches that my torso gave up on decades ago. Clearly he’s a fit lad and mid-set confirms my suspicions, as he impressively manages to hang from the metal beam above the stage. It’s a photographer’s dream! Meanwhile Ilan and Danny aren’t stationary behind their kits, there’s quite a bit of standing whilst playing and there are crowd encouragement too. Despite the severe lack of bodies in the room, these American guys were still impressively giving it their all. It was a frenetic live performance filled with freewheeling experimentation which had an air of illegal New York warehouse loft rave about it.
Lip Critic were out to attack our aural senses and get us involved, with Bret making one or two forays into the audience whilst conveying his spoken rap style deliveries when not auditioning for Extreme Noise Terror. The electronic punk onslaught was going reasonably well, but as tune three I think it was, took a hold, it had drifted into freestyle jazz mode and horrible memories of enduring Black Midi last year at Latitude festival prior to Siouxsie’s set, was starting to take a hold. Lip Critic were rapidly losing me. I stopped dancing which is never a good sign!
The set was becoming disjointed and moving away from their opening electronic and drums dance beats and unwanted freewheeling experimentation was now on the cards. However, the chemistry was there for the band and they were so in sync that nearing the end of the set they all immediately froze at the same split second and silently held their various poses, I kid you not, for at least a minute or two, you could have heard your heart beating, it was that deadly quiet. It was impressive that they could emulate Kraftwerk’s ‘Showroom Dummies’ in various poses, but what was the point of this? Must be art!
Wanting to involve the punters further, Bret invited a member of the audience up on stage to throw some dance moves and Fiona dutifully obliged and Bret and Fiona became the new Sandy and Danny from ‘Grease’. Fiona was having a ball and was no shrinking violet with her eyes sparkling with joy and clearly was having more fun than watching the various stages of the Tour De France!
Lip Critic borrow from so many different places that they cease to resemble any of them and it’s fair to comment that they are an acquired taste, one which throws in the likes of slow doom metal, EBM and punk. They seem like nice fellas and put on an energetic performance, but it was one I found more amusing than enjoyable, which is a shame and at the early time of 9:37pm they were done. Tonight the punters were overall given 59 minutes of live music (including the silent break) for £13.50 which seems a tad excessive, which is like Lip Critic’s music for me! But that’s just one person’s view. I noted that several folk vacated the venue during the Lip Critic set, whilst others were having a ball. We are all different, except that bloke in ‘The Life Of Brian’…“I’m not”!.
Lip Critic:
Bret Kaser – vocals, electronics/samplers
Connor Kleitz – electronics/samplers
Ilan Natter – drums
Danny Eberle – drums
