Eddie Argos, self-professed lover of comics and lead singer and lyricist for Art Brut, has a way of conducting himself in live performance that is, shall we say, interesting. As if a cross between a benevolent general and a wacky concert conductor, he asks his bandmates at the start of every song bandmates, “Are you ready, Art Brut?” He doesn’t sing so much as emote in a speaking voice, detailing anecdotes from his reality in a humorous way, backed by his extremely animated band. And as I describe to you what I saw when I saw this band playing at the Black Cat over the weekend, you probably wouldn’t believe me anyway. But what I say is entirely true.
The opening act for the night was a Californian band called Princeton. (Forget that I thought maybe they got the name because they were all Ivy Leaguers; their Web site says the name came from Princeton Street in Santa Monica, where three of them grew up.) The band is comprised of cute-as-a-button twin brothers
Jesse and Matt Kivel (lead and bass guitars), Ben Usen (keyboards), and David Kitz (drums). Being four guys hailing SoCal, they probably would not appreciate it when I say they are good at writing and playing danceable, bouncy pop songs, but I found myself tapping my feet and dancing to their appealing rhythms. Like the Beach Boys? I think you’ll love this band.
To be perfectly frank, I was not expecting a band like them to open for Art Brut, a band known to be off the cuff and unpredictable. As an unabashed lover of good pop, I found Princeton terribly engaging. I had initially decided a song entitled “I Left Me Love in Nagasaki” had to be the punchline of a bad joke, but I was pleasantly surprised by its poppiness. I also found the “musical chairs”-like passing off of guitars between the twins, the keyboardist, and the drummer between songs very cool, as if they wanted to prove that they each had more than one talent. “Shout It Out” was one of several songs that the band encouraged us to clap along to and you know what? From a cursory glance around me, the audience was game. Somehow they’d managed to charm the bohemians.
And then there was…Art Brut. Eddie Argos divulged to me before the gig that he likes being a show-off and the internet is a great platform for spreading his wit. So it should come as no surprise that the star of the evening was, in fact, Eddie himself. I’d read that he likes to jump rope with his microphone cord, but actually seeing him do this in front of an audience was another matter entirely. Another part of the Art Brut show is Argos stopping mid-song, the band patiently waiting to begin playing again as he entertained us on a variety of topics, including his insistence that if you ride on the glass elevator to the basement of Willy Wonka’s crazy chocolate factory, you will find the Batcave. He told us this in such a deadpan matter, so earnest that you wouldn’t dare not believe him. Later on he said we should all stop what we’re doing and form bands, also threatening us that if this did not happen by the next time he came to town, he would come after each and every one of us, because he never forgets a face. You can’t make this stuff up. Don’t forget, their first single was “Formed a Band”: “Formed a band / we formed a band / look at us / we formed a band / I want to be the boy / the man / who writes the song / that makes Israel and Palestine / get along“.
While Argos’s onstage antics are entertaining, you can’t discount the high energy and seemingly never-stopping soundtrack to the evening. This was provided handily by Jasper Future and Ian Catskillkin on guitars, Freddy Feedback on bass, and Mikey Breyer on drums. Everything melds together for a perfect rock noise; Future and Catskillkin are wailing on their guitars maniacally, and Feedback and Breyer are driving the tunes along with their beats. Older favorites like “Modern Art”, “Bang Bang Rock and Roll”, the thoughtful “Emily Kane” (about a childhood flame), and the previously mentioned “Formed a Band” went down extremely well with the crowd. And Argos is still funny and on top form in their newest album, Art Brut vs. Satan, as evidenced in songs like “The Passenger”, in which he walked around the stage, mimicking the wheels of a train with his hands, and causing all of us to laugh; “Alcoholics Unanimous”, with its triumphant chorus of “bring me tea! / bring me coffee!“; and “DC Comics and Chocolate Milkshake”, Argos wistfully talking about his boyhood loves and how it’s perfectly natural to be a grown man and still love such things. Overall, this was one highly enjoyable night. Catch them live if you can as they make their way across North America.
Set list
Formed a Band
My Little Brother
Summer Job
Good Weekend
Rusted Guns of Milan
What a Rush
Modern Art (DC Comics version)
Demons Out
Bad Weekend
Alcoholics Unanimous
Emily Kane
The Passenger
DC Comics and Chocolate Milkshake
//
Bang Bang Rock and Roll
Twist and Shout
Post Soothing Out
Tour dates
Oct 20 - Earl / Atlanta*
Oct 22 – Bottletree / Birmingham*
Oct 23 – Spanish Moon / Baton Rouge*
Oct 24 – Walter’s on Washington / Houston*
Oct 25 – Mohawk / Austin*
Oct 27 – Club Congress / Tucson*
Oct 28 – Casbah / San Diego*
Oct 29 – Glass House / Pomona, Ca.*
Oct 30 – Cafe Du Nord (2 shows) / San Francisco*
Nov 1 – Holocene / Portland*
Nov 2 – Neumo’s / Seattle*
Nov 3 – Biltmore / Vancouver#
Nov 4 – Neurolux / Boise#
Nov 5 – Urban Lounge / Salt Lake City#
Nov 6 – Bluebird / Denver#
Nov 8 – Slowdown / Omaha#
Nov 9 – Triple Rock / Minneapolis#
Nov 10 – Lincoln Hall / Chicago#
Nov 12 – First Unitarian Church / Philadelphia#
Nov 13 – Brooklyn Bowl / New York City#
Nov 14 – Ottobar / Baltimore#
Nov 15 – Bowery Ballroom / New York City#
*with Princeton
#with Surfer Blood
Art Brut: website | myspace | Art Brut Announce Big Fall North American Tour | Video for Art Brut’s New Single “Alcoholics Unanimous”
Princeton: website | myspace | @ SECAC Day Stage @ SXSW
Art Brut‘s frontman, the irrepressible and extremely funny Eddie Argos, has been working on a side project with girlfriend Dyan Valdes (of the Blood Arm) called Everybody Was in the French Resistance…NOW! The interesting bit about this side project is that it isn’t just any side project: Argos and Valdes decided to go through the decades of popular music, writing and recording song responses to 12 famous tunes throughout popular music history for their album Fixing the Charts, released on Cooking Vinyl earlier this year and available now.
