Birdengine live review
This Birdengine live review is of a gig performed for the a recording of the Simple Folk radio show in September 2007. He played with Herman Dune member Stanley Brinks.
Birdengine is the performing name used by Lawry Joseph Tilbury a local Brighton artist originally from Dorset. I first became aware of this man when I originally moved to Brighton 3 years ago and saw someone who looked remarkably like Beck, everywhere I went. I think it was mainly the glasses that lead me to this comparison, that and the fact he had the same face. It wasn’t until tonight that I discovered that this man was not in fact Beck at all, but Birdengine.
Birdengine removes his glasses to play live, so no one else saw the resemblance tonight and we were able to focus purely on the music. This is a good thing, as his music is quite wonderfully weird and unique. Although on record the instrumentation can be varied, tonight Birdengine simply played a guitar and sang. This was good as we could concentrate on his biggest asset, his extraordinary voice. The only other artist I can think of who might give an idea of how unusual it is is Antony, of Antony and the Johnsons. His voice is not like Antonys, just as different to the norm as Antony’s is. Rather than describe it, I will urge you to watch the videos that follow and listen for yourself.
Like the act who followed, Stanley Brinks, Birdengines lyrics are humorous and are a key element of tonights performance. They summon up witchy supernatural thoughts as he sings about dying mermaids, a man who has ‘hoof where toe should be’ (the absensce of plurals in that line were the highlight of my day), and chopping heads off dogs. The mid song banter is also rather unusual, at one point he comments on the tiny man living inside his arm, when asked what he’s doing there, Birdengine replys ‘just trying to live his life, like the rest of us’, poignant and imaginative, a fine combination.
Needless to say, I shall be looking out for this man again, it turns out he’s just as much of a celebrity as his doppelganger Beck himself, well, should be at least.
Birdengine videos
Thoughts of a Falling Glass Man
[youtube N7IhvwVxQAA]
Live recordings
[youtube ud63Nu11IVo]
[youtube xwjDnsjJ_Ec]
Buy the EP!
Birdengine has a great EP ‘I feed you rabbit water’, you can buy from Amazon by clicking here, or by clicking on the image above.
If you live in Brighton, you can also buy the EP from Resident.
For more visit Birdengine’s myspace, and his page on his label Benbecula records.
To hear tonights gig (to be broadcast on October 17th at 6PM on Radio Reverb) and more listen to the Simple Folk radio show.
If you want to see gigs like this keep an eye on our gigs in Brighton page, it lists all essential gigs and is updated weekly.