As queues snake around the seafront venue, you can’t help but get a sense summer is on the way. The scent of charring barbecues, the littering of discarded cider bottles and the British attitude to tops off when the sun is out are all telltale signs and, it seems, this Friday carries with it not just an aura of optimism but similarly, a notion that Brighton’s best time of the year is not too far away.

The Hot 8 Brass Band summarise all that is good about summer in a nutshell, coming straight at Brighton from New Orleans, they have done little to ever diminish their outstanding reputation and relationship with Brighton. After filming their video for ‘Sexual Healing’ in and around the North Laines a couple of years back, they have cemented themselves as demigods within Brighton, therefore it is no wonder this show has completely and utterly sold out. Upon arrival, one young chap was distraught at how he could not get in despite his best efforts; it appears that when tonight has sold out, it really has sold out.

Bodies pack into the intimate surroundings, eagerly anticipating the early start – 8:30pm to be precise – however this has done nothing to jade the weekend offender optimism that is brewing. People pack to the bar, coming back clutching cans of Red Stripe as if it is during the last days of Rome, screaming to themselves in a tribal fashion that this when the weekend starts. Arms are flung around the shoulders of comrades, wide grins show sets of teeth and the Friday night’s shirt choices are risqué to say the least as bodies knock beer, wine and various other beverages over clothing leaving angry looking punters hurling their dagger eyes at the suspected offender. Nevertheless, the Hot 8 Brass Band are in town.

Coming onstage to their renowned single, ‘What’s My Name?’, it is clear that the crowd are up to the dancing and audience participation that is expected of them, despite the fact that it’s slightly too early for them to be as oiled up on alcohol as I’m sure they would like to be. The brass group onstage toy with the rhythm section leading for huge dancing motions to the entirely bombastic, joyous feel good music that is erupting in the concrete confounds of Coalition. The Hot 8 Brass Band are known for their eclectic array of covers that they manipulate within their gigantic sound, beginning the evening’s covers selection with The Temptations’ ‘Papa Was A Rolling Stone’. The soul funk classic is turned into a different beast entirely by the group onstage as they emphasise trumpet sections along with the funk-fuelled guitar and the riveting drum pattern that ricochets away below the surface. It is clear the crowd are warmed up and ready for all they are to have thrown at them.

As the group onstage rattle into their own single, ‘Get Up’ a mass sing-along is orchestrated within the baying crowd: bodies begin rolling over heads leaving not a single person in the venue standing still with a gormless expression. Every single person in the venue is shaking, ready to embrace the weekend, the birth of summer and the group onstage. It is clear why the Hot 8 Brass Band have such a formidable relationship with Brighton, they completely fall into the vein of optimism, hedonism and utopia that the city demands, nothing is a problem with their mindset and it is exactly the escapism that the weekend demands. As phones are raised in the air, desperate to try and capture memories from the evening, the group onstage work up a frenzy, now to the point where sweat is beginning to drip from sections of the ceiling. More beer is passed forward and still, you get the sense the group onstage have barely began what they really set out to achieve.

Then it happens, the real highlight of the set emerges. With the hour set coming to an end, the group dedicate a good fifteen minutes to their rendition of Marvin Gaye’s ‘Sexual Healing’, a song that was filmed here in Brighton that literally sees gaps open in the crowd, punters desperately trying to engage everybody within dancing. Individuals begin to drunkenly stumble towards their other halves, forgetting about social rules surrounding excessive public displays of affection, yet nobody seems to mind as what is happening within Coalition seems to be a genuine love-in as they were always intended. If the Hot 8 Brass Band did not get you excited for the promising summer that lies ahead, then you have a heart of stone that will never fracture for anything. What a great beginning, a night of optimism and utopian bliss. Even if it did feel exceptionally early leaving at around 9:30pm.
Tom Churchill

Website: hot8brassband.com
Facebook: facebook.com/Hot8BrassBand
Twitter: twitter.com/hot8brassband