Dead
Blood Cells/Brutalist Architecture In The Sun
SAKS, Southend - 4 August 2018
"A
great show in spite of suffering sound issues"
Cult 13 is a
monthly club night for alternative music in Southend. It is held in
the downstairs (underground) bar of SAKS near to Southend Station.
The bar itself is large and airy, as is the stage. Although if you
are six foot plus tall you might not want to pogo or jump to much as
the ceiling is very low.
Tonight, the
venue is hosting two bands from south of the river (Kent) Brutalist
Architecture in the Sun and Dead Blood Cells. Not sure if it
was because it was one of the hottest days in the year (even I had
resorted to shorts) with a Mute T-Shirt, but the audience numbers
were not great - probably about fifteen people.
Which was a
shame because, as ever, Dean from Brutalist
Architecture In The Sun put on a great show armed with an
iBook (running Ableton Live) a Korg MS 20, Behringer Deep Mind 12,
Novation Bass Station 2 and a Waldorf Striechfett (String Machine).
Obviously Waldorf have great ESP as they sent me an email about this
device the day before.
He was ably
supported but the wonderful vocals of Mr Cye Thomas, who gave
another engaging performance and spent as much time in the audience
performing as on the stage. He also expertly managed to get the
sound guys to adjust his vocals in the mix (again by coming out
front to get them changed). This was a clever thing to do as the
sound was being run from the side and not the front of the stage -
and initially the vocals were totally overpowering and distorting,
then too low, and then just right.
This was
achieved within the first song which meant we could just sit and
listen / dance to the music. Sadly, only one member of the audience
was from Basildon but I think he got a kick out of the track Basildon
being dedicated to him. As always, a great set and the club's odd
videos playing in the background seemed to fit very well - as did
the brickwork showing through the edge of the stage wall - all very
Brutalist Architecture.
Setlist: Humanise,
Peepshow, Malevolent, Oblivion, 2Horses, Basildon, Something New,
Running on Empty/Popular Lies Encore: Love & Science
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Photos [L-R]: Brutalist Architecture in the Sun x3
There was then
a short break with some odd remixes and covers, including I believe
it was Cradle of Filth's cover of Heaven 17's Temptation.
Anyway, back to the live performances and next up were Dead
Blood Cells (Jason and Tamara), sadly they too suffered
from the mix not being quiet right between vocals and instruments,
which did detract from the overall effect. But both the power of the
music and Tamara's singing ability managed to shine through at times
and certainly the experience improved as the set progressed.
When they
performed a very different cover of Tiffany's I Think We're
Alone Now (I did point out to Jason referring to the track
as a Lena Lovech cover might give higher credibility!) - the
slightly more minimalist backing track certainly enabled Tamara's
vocal to take centre stage. This was followed by We are Total
Alien and Anti Love Song (encore) which were
equally powerful.
Setlist Minator,
Digital Freak, I Will Only Break Your Heart, The Candles They
Flicker, Sometimes Not At All, I Think We're Alone Now, We Are
Total Alien, Encore: Anti-Love Song
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Photos [L-R]: Dead Blood Cells
The
evening was rounded off by some more traditional alternative
music including Killing Joke's Love Like Blood and
Virgin Prunes' Baby Turns Blue. All in all, a very
enjoyable and unexpected evening in the downstairs bar of a club
in Southend. Both acts gave great performances and I will
definitely try to see both acts again; and hope to see Tamara in
a setting when the full strength of her vocals can be
appreciated.
8/10
for the performances 6/10 for sound quality especially
for Dead Blood Cells.
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