It was a balmy night at The Blind Tiger Club for the first ‘Fragile Creature Feature’, a new quarterly night curated by Fragile Creatures. For this first show they decided to present MynieMoe as headliners with an acoustic set from The Bearded Monster to open up and a DJ set from Teen Creeps Luther Ivan Dross to close – a very impressive lineup for a free entry show. The crowd were a little slow to emerge so The Bearded Monster took to the stage in front of a fairly quiet room – despite this he got off to a great start playing two of my all time favourites ‘Dead End Street’ by The Kinks and ‘Moondance’ by Van Morrison sung with a coarse gruffness through a false beard that was really quite endearing. I enjoyed his arrangements of some great songs and he certainly made me sit up and listen with a very loud approach to an acoustic set.
Fragile Creatures took things to another level, starting slowly and working their way through some very good songs which were much appreciated by the audience, which grew along with their enthusiasm as the show progressed. Stand out tracks were the eponymous ‘Fragile Creatures’ and ‘She Makes Me Nervous’; their brand new song ‘You Don’t Get It’ was an excellent addition to a very strong set. Lead singer Adam Kidd’s rock stances and the animated Aaron Neville on keys contrasted greatly with guitarist Tom Alty; who seemed a little subdued on the night but played some fantastic guitar, more than making up for it. The band were very tight and kept up the momentum of their set until the very end – ‘Body in the Boot’ seemed a strange choice to close, as the slowest song of the set, but it seemed to go down very well with the friendly crowd.
Fragile Creatures took things to another level, starting slowly and working their way through some very good songs which were much appreciated by the audience, which grew along with their enthusiasm as the show progressed. Stand out tracks were the eponymous ‘Fragile Creatures’ and ‘She Makes Me Nervous’; their brand new song ‘You Don’t Get It’ was an excellent addition to a very strong set. Lead singer Adam Kidd’s rock stances and the animated Aaron Neville on keys contrasted greatly with guitarist Tom Alty; who seemed a little subdued on the night but played some fantastic guitar, more than making up for it. The band were very tight and kept up the momentum of their set until the very end – ‘Body in the Boot’ seemed a strange choice to close, as the slowest song of the set, but it seemed to go down very well with the friendly crowd.
We’ve reviewed the mighty MynieMoe on these pages before, when we saw their EP launch at The Brunswick back in October last year. Last night I felt their set, in fact the whole performance, was a great improvement. Although we were very impressed before we were blown away last night – they seem much more of a band now and treated us to some great sounding new songs. They took us on a rollercoaster ride through jazz, ska, reggae, rock, latin, funk – it was all there and the crowd were willingly swept up, happily along for the journey. The way they manage their way through this array of genres is impressive, done with confidence and skill – obviously it helps that everyone in the band knows their instrument inside out. MynieMoe were using this show as a warm-up for playing the Jersey Festival this weekend and they certainly warmed up the crowd tonight, who were really quite sweaty by the end of the show, with many rushing to the door for fresh air once the ‘Moe had completed their encore.
A brave few drank on and boogied to some smooth disco from DJ Luther Ivan Dross but I opted for a cab ride home, tired from an excellent evening of entertainment. The Fragile Creature Feature returns on the 28th of November with Octopuses as headliner – we highly recommend it!
MD – BrightonsFinest