Concrete Fun House album launch party
Review
As predicted in my review of its release, Concrete Fun House duly launched their debut album 'I Guess It's Time We Got Into This' later that same day at Just Dropped In with support from What About Eric? and the Stoke based Christian Music.
It truly was a launch party: the venue was festooned in balloons & inflatable moths (you don't see those too often do you?) and more balloons & much confetti came into play as the evening progressed.
In theory, seeing a band as often as I've seen What About Eric? this year (three times in the last month alone) is not going to help find new things to say as the sequence progresses. However this band are not getting the acclaim which continues to build through simply being good: they bring novelty to each gig even when only a week or so has elapsed.
This time out, the set had evolved: not only was the forthcoming single played but an even newer song completed earlier the same day. Inevitably the fresh material & shorter (support) slot meant that at least one song I particularly like had to be dropped but as an indicator of a band going somewhere fast, that's powerful.
Here's another. Afterwards, I put it to Libbi that they get better and better each time, to which she simply answered "yes". A perfect articulation of quiet & steely self confidence, the sort which is driving them on the way they are going, unalloyed by the slightest trace of egotism. That's why (well one reason) I rate them so highly.
It's hard to put my finger on what I noticed compared with a couple of weeks ago: I've attributed a number of adjectives to them (all of which I stand by) but maybe there is a developed suppleness to their playing (especially of the songs which have been in their set the longest): they seem so at ease playing, so comfortable in their own skins as a band. Given their chosen genre, that's a really helpful attribute.
Concrete Fun House played the whole of their album (and more) and I'd better cut to the chase immediately and address the issue of my characterising the songs as "sombre" (amongst other epithets). So joyous was the delivery at the launch that this adjective couldn't apply. So what went wrong? Could it be my take on the album was way off? Or do Concrete Fun House possess a duality which permits both descriptions to be true depending on the context. Or are they Schrödinger's band?
One crucial piece of evidence might be the most upbeat of all the songs they played: an encore of what came across as a genuine party piece. Since this so far unrecorded song is actually called "Summer Cholera" and its lyrics are inspired by Dostoevsky: I think that helps prove the point that they can be two apparently different and even possibly contradictory bands simultaneously.
The audience showed them unconditional love throughout: this is a band who over only two years have built a devoted following: I think it's fair to call them an underground phenomenon as a sense of crossover into something the mainstream is hard to detect, but I think they are comfortable with that: it helps protect their integrity which is a major part of their identity & with the passion of their audience is justified.
So it was party mood throughout and regardless of the anger & ferocity of many songs, the cholera references & the seriousness of so many songs. I think people take the dark humour I mentioned in the previous review to heart and celebrate it & in truth the set isn't a single emotional tone: "What Happened to the Caterpillars" for example provides a popular touch of whimsy and to be personal, I found "Erica 2: Electric Boogaloo" to be a new live favourite: it's unlike any of the other songs in its gentler performance (Joe played it seated) and provides dynamic variety to the sequence. In the interests of balance, "Headlines: Everybody's Dead Dave" seems to have emerged as a potential rival to "Caught Wanking" as the zenith of the furious end of the live repertoire.
And as far as I could see, the moths survived the mayhem to live to see another gig.
