well, what can i say.
on saturday i was lucky to be able to check out the first official live debut by the pre new, the new era, revised setup incorporating various members of earl brutus.
hanging out before the chaos with the band (shin and jamie fry from earl brutus, and some mates adding more noise) was very revealing, and something of a headfuck considering the one time i was lucky enough to see earl brutus live changed my life (more detail : here)
firstly and most shocking to me was finding out out there was/is a secret member of earl brutus who provided a lot of the lyrics, and even the vocals to ‘on me, not in me‘.
secondly, jamie fry is soon to hit the mid century, but to say he is fired up re the pre new would be an understatement.
there is a midlife fire in his belly, and its raging hard.
unlike his role in earl brutus shin is on now bass (something he isn’t too happy about as it means he has to actually work as opposed to being able to just stand there and get sh*t faced!), and his stage presence consists of standing low, hair down covering face, bass neck vertical, and just letting loose.
jim on vocals dominates the stage. no slacker appearance for him. sharp suit, sharp shoes, and sharp ‘tude.
the music may have lacked the subtle machine beats and synths that make large parts of the earl brutus archive so special, but this was just a practise session for the band to feel their feet, so it was pretty straight up rock sounding. still, for an all too short 40 minutes they rattled out a couple of old classics (‘universal plan‘ of course, the rest are a booze fueled blazed blur), and one or two new ones that have lyrics just as direct and wonderful as previously.
the result of which was just a huge blast and very entertaining. jamie using the venues air conditioning as extra percussion being of particular note.
unfortunately due to the need to get up @ 6am the next day, i was not able to stay out with the band to fully celebrate the event, but i’m lead to believe things became somewhat messy.
the band are due to be playing a couple of select festivals.
do i really need to tell you my thoughts as to whether you should go ?
growing old disgracefully never felt or sounded so good.