Following the recent release of their latest album ‘Choir of Echoes’, Peggy Sue returned to the UK after touring Europe and their first stop was their hometown of Brighton.
I’d been listening to Choir of Echoes all day and was excited to see how the tracks would transfer live on stage.
During the gig, Peggy Sue played a handful of older tracks as well as material from their new album – much to the delight of the hard-core Peggy Sue fans including tracks such as ‘Watch Men’ and ‘Yo Mamma’ which were some of my favourites from their early albums.
Peggy Sue have that rare combination of vocals which, when joined together, sound not only quirky but haunting and incredibly powerful.
Many times throughout the night I felt the hairs on the back of my neck rise up due to this perfect vocal collaboration.
The highlight of the night had to be their acapella cover of Ray Charles’ ‘Hit The Road Jack’ which left the audience totally awestruck. Peggy Sue laid down their instruments and gathered around one microphone at the front of the stage using just their voices, a loop pedal and some minimal drums. Peggy Sue’s version was so beautifully orchestrated and carefully balanced, they created by far the best and most interesting cover I’ve ever seen performed.
Once finished, they even left their looped vocals of the chorus running whilst strapping on their instruments once again and tuning up ready for the next number.
Peggy Sue did this trick a few times throughout the gig which I think works really well as it’s such an effective way of moving from one song to another without the usual awkward silence whilst members re-tune and struggle to multi-task.
Peggy Sue were actually very good at banter between tracks with out taking too much away from the music itself and it’s clear that the band have a really close relationship as they were able to tease and joke with each other throughout the gig which I find always helps to make an audience warm to performers and therefore enjoy the gig more.
As much as I love Peggy Sue, I must admit that I don’t tend to listen to their records constantly on repeat (unlike some of my other favourite bands). However, when it comes to seeing them live – Peggy Sue create a different story all together. Their music is absolutely mesmerising and their on-stage presence is overwhelming and so Brightonsfinest highly recommends that you go and see them live in action – as they really bring their music to life which makes Peggy Sue all the more powerful and incredibly enchanting.
Website: peggywho.com
Facebook: facebook.com/PeggySueBand
Twitter: twitter.com/peggysueband