Art Brut

I’ve seen a lot of photos and read a lot of words about Eddie Argos, bombastic frontman and post-modern performer in Art Brut. They’ve mainly been re: crazy and fun live shows and him ranting like a funnier Mark E. Smith, only with added beer gut and moustache. This time, in Australia, he’s sans moustache but not lacking in wit and energy (or beer gut – buttons were unbuttoned). He’s an entertainer, for sure; getting brains ticking in a weird not-so-sexed-up rock and roll fest. It’s a terrific dichotomy between ROCK and concept and it doesn’t wear too thin, even in a fairly long performance in front of a less than sold out crowd.

Apparently in Berlin there’s a university paper about him and Art Brut, and being a ‘depressive dandy’, and it’s easy to see why (well, apart from the ‘depressive dandy’ part). He busts down typical notions of performance with all the self-referentiality, acting out the satire of the rock and roll show with pizzazz. It’s terrific, even if I did feel a little bored by the end of a three-song encore. Anthropologists and those more schooled in the ways of rock could find equal points of interest and endearment. He _is_ like a Mark E. Smith (without so much of the jerkiness or leering), ranting at every opportunity but in such funny and endearing ways that between those killer rock tunes barriers between them and the audience are broken down. The only problem was that the crowd was pretty scant, lacking in much energy on this Tuesday night.

Argos seems like the type of performer who would thrive on an energetic crowd, but because tonight’s was fairly lacklustre it was clear the band weren’t reaching their usual level of reception, even if they performed excellently and with obvious delight. With just one trip into the crowd (which I missed, actually; though my friend tells me he was standing “just there”, where I was standing before I had business to attend to in the bathroom) in a half-full venue that is essentially a really long, dark room, it wasn’t electrifying. But clearly, Art Brut still put on one of the more interesting and fun rock shows around.

Photo: Itsjazzbaby