I arrived early for ‘Why?’s welcome return to Brighton’s shores and was treated to an intense introduction to support group ‘Young Fathers’. Rappers Kayus Bankole, Graham Hastings and Alloysious Massaquoi were joined live by an anonymous percussionist with a single floor tom and a pair of splash cymbals to beef up the backing tracks they sang over. These guys were absolutely committed to their performance and locked audience members with thousand-yard cold stares between fits of exuberant dancing. Their commitment onstage sat well with a well crafted set of interesting tunes, great arrangements and fantastic voices: switching from heavy lyrical raps to surprisingly tender soulful vocals, definitely ones to keep an eye on.

Why? in contrast, were relaxed and seemed very much at home, a suspicion confirmed when Yoni told the crowd Brighton is one of his all time favourite towns; “you should go to Cincinnati if you don’t believe me!” Yoni, Josiah and Doug were joined onstage tonight by Ben Sloan on second drum kit and multi-instrumentalists Liz Wolf (nee Hodson) and Sarah Winters. The band played a crowd pleasing, representative set featuring plenty of Alopecia and Eskimo Snow, whilst showcasing hook-laden tunes from their new album ‘Mumps, Etc.’, released the day after on Tuesday 9th. ‘Sod in the Seed’ and ‘Strawberries’ went down a storm, making great use of the new female vocals and showing their song-writing is going from strength to strength.

It must be said that Why? are an excellent prospect live, with two drummers on either side of the stage with custom drum-sets, incorporating xylophones amongst an array of percussion devices. This enhanced rhythm section makes the grooves even more exciting than on record and many songs get re-worked to make best use of the available instrumentation. Yoni’s vocals are souped-up with delays and fabulous backing singing from the rest of the group. At one point, after pulling out some hilarious dance moves, Yoni quips, “you came for a concert and we gave you theatre,” but he’s not far off the truth: I was entranced. They finish a two song encore with my personal favourite from Elephant Eyelash, ‘Gemini” and the audience shuffles out smiling, fully sated and eager to pick up their copies of ‘Mumps, Etc.’ the following day.

Adam Kidd