Fight Like Apes live review - Brighton

This is a review of the Levi’s Ones To Watch Fight Like Apes and Gloria Cycles gig at Audio, Brighton on Wednesday 19th November 2008.

“You cheer me up” sing Gloria Cycles on this early Wednesday eve. A midweek lull in the shitty, bitty world of economic depression certainly warrants this. Lead-man Kenny McCracken moves like Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand fame as his torso moves in a bendy fashion that’s not just limited to a Stretch Armstrong. ‘Vegas’ is one of the highlights tonight and during this ditty, ‘Gloria Cycles’ comes up in lights and everything ties together in a glitzy kind of way. Bassist and other vocalist Jen Dalby is 6 feet tall and then some especially when in heels. Her voice is dainty and haunting at the same time. When Jen sings, the band sounds like a different project altogether with lilting vocal harmonies and maracas. Upon the extremely fashionable Jen joining Gloria Cycles, the band must have felt they’d unearthed a gem. Bouncy and optimistic now is their sound, it will be sweet if they bronze further with some bright exposure.

Fight like Apes then take to the stage and carry bags of energy, blasting through space wave complete with an Irish punk sensibility. Another tall bassist, this time approaching 7 fee tall has a purple sweatband and carries the sound as lead-lady and keyboardist Cynthia Rothrock and synth-maestro Jay Anthony Franke have license to go loopy. Cynthia begins hitting a crate on the fence as percussion and it’s certainly a rousing entrance. Soon after, Jay jokes that he’s annoyed with the two people sitting at the back for not getting involved at the front, to which Cynthia retorts that they might not be able to walk and to leave them alone. Never a dull moment at all. In terms of their contemporaries, Fight Like Apes carry the Midnight Juggernauts’ ravey interface, a whole load of Fiery Furnace rhyming sensibility and Architecture In Helsinki quirk-in-your face. Cynthia dances all over the place and its total energy in abundance. Soon to support The Prodigy on their UK tour as well, let’s hope that Fight Like Apes bring the jams for a long time to come.

Marcus Walsh

This entry was posted on Friday, November 21st, 2008 at 10:32 am and is filed under Brighton Gig Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.