(Review by Mark Kelly)
THE BUG CLUB – RESIDENT, BRIGHTON 29.8.24
I’d just about got used to The Bug Club’s ‘Rare Birds: Hour Of Song’ album, released in October last year, when BAM!!! Here they are with another album!!! They’re becoming almost as prolific as Neil Young. The shortened version of the album title is ‘On The Intricate Inner Workings Of The System’, and it is their first album to be released on their new label, the absolutely legendary Sub Pop.
Unbelievably this is their first ever instore show, and they tell us that they’re not really sure how these things work! They soon seem to get the hang of it though. They tell us that they will mostly be playing songs from the new album, but there will be a few oldies too.
However, they start with ‘War Movies’ from the new album. Like many of their songs, it’s fast and effervescent. Second is ‘Pop Single’, which oddly enough is about writing a pop single! It’s a bit slower than the opening song, and could almost be serious, but I somehow doubt that it is. Next up is ‘Best Looking Strangers In The Cemetery’, which includes the marvellous lyric: “we’re not rich, we’re just good looking”.
Bassist Tilly Harris introduces the next song as being “about grey laminate flooring”. It turns out to be ‘Marriage’ from the last album. Maybe grey laminate flooring is what marriage brings to mind for Tilly. Her stage announcements are one of the things that make The Bug Club so much fun live. Indeed, one of the key things about a Bug Club gig is that the band seem to have so much fun!!! This extends to recently new drummer Tom Rees, who can barely stop laughing throughout the set. Tom is well known to The Bug Club, as he produces their records. He also drums for Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard, so he has a good pedigree!
They’ve been playing ‘A Bit Like James Bond’ for a while, so that already sounds like an oldie. I’d never really thought that I was at all like James Bond, but according to this song, being gluten intolerant is a bit like James Bond, in which case I really must buy a new tuxedo. ‘We Don’t Care About That’ is a prime example of how The Bug Club stretch out their songs. Whilst the band don’t sound like The Who, the way they play reminds me very much of The Who circa ‘Live At Leeds’. They occasionally remind me of The Velvet Underground too.
They play a song which, according to Tilly, is about “the ugliest shoe in Britain”. Unfortunately I’m not able to identify it beyond that. We revisit the back catalogue (well, last year’s album) for ‘Short And Round’, which is about the haircut that so many of us have. Are The Bug Club laughing at us?!! They play “another bit of dirge for you”. It’s not a dirge though, it’s another unidentified newbie. Like the rest of the album it’s really good! Tilly tells us that the title track of the album “is about bungalows”. I’m quite sure that it’s not. The set closes with ‘It’s Art’ and ‘Quality Pints’, which is on the album, but was released as a single first, and has been in The Bug Club’s setlist for quite a few months now. Judging from this performance, the new album is something of a triumph. I look forward to seeing them play it live on tour. However, I’m not covering ‘Brighton Psych Fest’ for which they are rockin’ on up at The Arch, so I may have to wait for a while as they tour the USA in October before playing UK dates in November.
The Bug Club:
Sam Willmett – guitar, vocals
Tilly Harris – bass, vocals
Tom Rees – drums
The Bug Club setlist:
‘War Movies’ (from 2024 ‘On The Intricate Inner Workings Of The System’ album)
‘Pop Single’ (from 2024 ‘On The Intricate Inner Workings Of The System’ album)
‘Best Looking Strangers In The Cemetery’ (from 2024 ‘On The Intricate Inner Workings Of The System’ album)
‘Marriage’ (from 2023 ‘Rare Birds: Hour Of Song’ album)
‘A Bit Like James Bond’ (from 2024 ‘On The Intricate Inner Workings Of The System’ album)
‘We Don’t Care About That’ (from 2024 ‘On The Intricate Inner Workings Of The System’ album)
‘Lonsdale Slipons’ (from 2024 ‘On The Intricate Inner Workings Of The System’ album)
‘Better Than Good’ (from 2024 ‘On The Intricate Inner Workings Of The System’ album)
‘Short And Round’ (from 2023 ‘Rare Birds: Hour Of Song’ album)
‘Actual Pain’ (from 2024 ‘On The Intricate Inner Workings Of The System’ album)
‘The Intricate Inner Workings Of The System’ (from 2024 ‘On The Intricate Inner Workings Of The System’ album)
‘It’s Art’ (from 2022 ‘Green Dream In F#’ album)
‘Quality Pints’ (from 2024 ‘On The Intricate Inner Workings Of The System’ album)
