Gigs on a Friday night are one of my favourite things. Then factor in that the next day is Brighton Pride and you’ve got something that could only be beaten by it being a Bank Holiday. Thanks to this combination The Globe was heaving; full of people wanting to kick start their weekend by the sea and purveyors of garage rock. Due to the party atmosphere permeating the air, it was hard to spot the weekend tourists and the weekend warriors apart.

The Dam Shebang kicked things off with a solid set that skewed catchy 50s sounding guitar riffs through reverb and feedback pedals, to create something that hankered to the past, but also felt current and vibrant. The Murder Boys mixed glam riffs with lo-fi garage rock sensibilities. While their sound suited the line-up, sadly their songs weren’t as strong as their influences. No disrespect to The Murder Boys, they made a great noise, it’s just they weren’t really saying anything. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and say the acoustics didn’t help, but when the vocals were heard it felt like they were an afterthought to the music. Rex Speedway and Thee Fortune Tellers were on third, and did their best to outshine the previous bands and to steal a bit of thunder from Strange Cages. Rex Speedway was wearing his now trademark skull balaclava. This was reminiscent of the Misfits and Drums of Death. Sadly, however, the songs weren’t as striking as Speedway’s look and they ended up sounding like the New York Dolls covering Link Wray.

While all of this was going on, the DJ’s upstairs were playing a mixture of psych and classic rock before it skewed and mutated into more contemporary styles, with a pop R&B twist. The only real downside was that the volume changed dramatically throughout the songs, so the best place to listen to it was outside, but that isn’t an ideal situation.

When Strange Cages took to the stage the night picked up and reminded me of what I was there for in the first place. To watch a young band play songs from their debut EP in front of a crowd that wanted to see a young band play songs from their debut EP. All the little mishaps and mistakes of the night faded away once Strange Cages started. Their brand of droney garage rock was a great response to a week chained to the desk at work. During ‘Desert’, ‘Come With Us’, ‘Lavasurf Lovesong’, ‘Bam Bam Boom’ and ‘Ego Killer’ they worked the crowd to a frenzy and showcased live why their debut EP was picked up by Drastic Decline Records.

Strange Cages is a band to keep an eye on and with a bit of elbow grease they should be able to escape from the enclosure of the pub scene and onto the bigger stage!