The Bees // Concorde2

Speculating the forth coming evening over a couple of beers in St James street, I envisaged the ultimate line up for a night like this: The Hives, The Bees and head lining STING!…. you had to bee there (sorry, no pun intended). I wondered if the band would open up with Muddy Waters “King Bee” or possibly the countryside sound of of “Grandchester Meadows” by Pink Floyd……

Supporting were a fresh sounding band called “We are the Hat” serving us some psychedelic, indie soft rock. Soulful funky hip hop with the front man, a waxing lyrical 2 stepper, sporting some very trendy headwear. A rather cute Ian Brown look-alike slapping the double bass.

The interlude gave me the opportunity to find that the toilets had been done up, MDFing some really rather wonderful abstract art and funky themes making no attempt to cover up the years of posters promoting the talent that had graced their fine stage. I loved it, all history and reminiscing as you hover whilst holding the door shut with the other foot. Its quite a talent, trust.

The Bees, a 6 piece bag of fun, hail from the Isle of Wight, recording their first Mercury nominated debut album in a garden shed after one of their poor old fathers, tools an all, had been exiled to another place. Influenced by the 60 and 70’s psycadellic vibes fused with funk, soul, ska, reggae with a proper country twang, the list goes on…..

They are a seriously talented bunch of musicians with the instruments constantly being swapped around, the lead singer with a naughty smile Paul Butler, was quite frankly taking the piss when he picked up and strummed effortlessly the 15th apparatus of the evening. All enigmatic and very adorable, the trumpet/keyboard/vocalist executes some amazing harmonies with the voice of an angel, however looks more like one of the o so friendly bouncers from the Honey Club. A confusing concept to stare upon.

The bouncy guitar riffs and upbeat vocals are injected with the funkadellic chords of the Hammond organ. Complimented with the very distinct sound of the Fender Rhodes keyboard as used by Steve Wynwood in the groovy classic “Give me some loving” circa “The Blues Brothers” film and the LEGEND that is Stevie Wonder.

The tracks off the new album were adored and applauded- with the single “Left foot step down” echoes to the fantastic skank dance “Chicken Payback”. And when they finally did bust out the Chicken song- to a rapturous encore every member of the audience did the funky chicken- elbows all over the shop! “A Miniha Meninina” an anthem for all Bee lovers seems as though its stolen from the sound track from the Mexican vampires off “Dusk till Dawn”, groovy, sexy with fantastic guitar riffs but absolutely impossibly to sing the correct words along to – most people muttering mememememememeAAA. The lyrical labyrinth of “The Ocularist”, another gem from the new album is said to be a collection of off the wall translations about a false eye maker from the dictionary into Portuguese. Jesus, the drugs must be good on the Isle!

Concorde2
http://www.concorde2.co.uk/

Madeira Shelter Hall,
Madeira Drive
Brighton
BN2 1EN

Telephone: 01273 697888
Booking office: 01273 673311
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Words: Catherine