JOHN GRANT + LYNKS – BRIGHTON DOME 9.10.25
Musically and artistically, I’ve always been attracted to singer-songwriters; individuals such as Labi Siffre, Stephin Merritt, and Daniel Johnston and all are prime examples of this strange and unique concoction of introspection, self-evaluation, and vulnerability that is hard to come by without actively searching for it in today’s musical climate. However, one singer-songwriter continuing to stand tall in the crowd for me is John Grant.
Born in Michigan and now living in Reykjavík, Grant made a steady name for himself as the principal songwriter and vocalist of the now-defunct rock band the Czars. Whilst under the aid of Simon Raymonde’s Bella Union label, he proceeded to journey further into his own pathway of songcraft, eventually infusing his warm, baritone croon with an eclectic array of influences on his debut record, 2010’s ‘Queen Of Denmark’. There is an angry, sarcastic series of caricaturistic songs to be found in his work, with many songs focusing on self-deprecation, an acclimatisation of childhood traumas, or his experiences reconciling towards a blossoming of his homosexuality. Further records like 2013’s ‘Pale Green Ghosts’ and 2015’s ‘Grey Tickles, Black Pressure’ only continued to establish a presence as a vital songwriter with a lack of musical classifications.
Following an extensive UK tour in support of his 2024 record ‘The Art Of The Lie’ alongside dance-punk upcomers Big Special, John Grant treats us further with a second tour, lasting ten days this October, starting at Dublin’s National Stadium before concluding at the Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh. However, for the fourth night on this tour, we welcome him with open arms at the Brighton Dome for a glorious night of camp wit and daring self-reflection.
As per every night on John Grant’s tour, the support for the night came in the form of London-based artist Lynks, who found their home on the Dome stage in between two dancers (Lynks Shower Gel), and a giant pair of red hands flanked either side. Originally from Bristol, Lynks has crafted a steady discography with a handful of EPs before releasing their ‘ABOMINATION’ album in the spring of 2024.
Infusing an extravagant stage presence with heavy electronic dance and evaluations on British gay culture, Lynks won over the crowd in seconds flat with the immediate club sonics of ‘Lynks Thinks’, donning a fur crop top and mask aside his two angels. During this track and the following number, a cover of Courtney Barnett’s ‘Pedestrian At Best’, there were occasional mic feedback issues, which, despite clashing with the energy of the first leg of the set, were quickly resolved. Lynks takes a moment to address the choice of support, stating “I get this reaction a lot, for a John Grant support, you’d expect this Icelandic beauty, wouldn’t you? Instead, you get a gimp yeti”. The piano bassline and four on the floor beat of ‘Use It Or Lose It’ underlies the topic of feeling like your mid-20s will be the peak of your attractiveness, while during ‘Tennis Song’, Lynks and their dancers lob a few tennis balls into the crowd atop a muzak beat that reminds me of OMD’s ‘Enola Gay’.
The title track from their ‘Abomination’ album followed suit, which discusses the hypocrisy of religion’s outlook on homosexuality, with the lyric “Every time I see the British Heart Foundation, I’m reminded that I’m an abomination” reverberating through the sea of John Grant fans. Following the erratic and 8-bit instrumental of ‘Silly Boy’, which sees some crowd participation of its title lyric, we get one of my favourite tracks of the set, entitled ‘How To Make A Béchamel Sauce In 10 Steps (With Pictures)’, which is exactly what it says on the tin. On top of some muffled sub-bass and distant piano passages, Lynks recites a ten-step recipe for Béchamel sauce, aided by the usage of pictures from their dancers. As the beat of the song slowly enters, I check with my culinary-trained father to my left whether or not the recipe is correct – he retorts with a confirmation, noting that the milk should be infused with a clove of studded onion and bay leaves, contradicting Lynks’ statement of pouring the milk.
After a quick plug of some signed vinyl, with a declaration that it will be a better investment than property or bitcoin, Lynks closed their set with a new track entitled ‘I Didn’t Come Here For Art’, which features the best production of the performance, making use of some heavy saw synth bass, before they paraded through the crowd amidst a cavalcade of confetti fired from their dancers and eventually concludes the set from the accessibility platform just to the left of where myself and my father were seated. Overall, Lynks brought forward one hell of a performance – my only gripe was that had it been performed in a venue such as Green Door Store or Revenge, I would have felt more locked into the atmosphere of the performance. That aside, though, there was a lot of energy, excitement and humour to be found in Lynks’ set, making for a tremendous introduction to the night’s proceedings.
Lynks setlist:
‘Lynks Thinks’ (from 2024 ‘Abomination’ album)
‘Pedestrian At Best’ (Courtney Barnett cover) (from ‘Smash Hits, Vol. 2’ EP)
‘Use It Or Lose It’ (from 2024 ‘Abomination’ album)
‘Tennis Song’ (from 2024 ‘Abomination’ album)
‘Abomination’ (from 2024 ‘Abomination’ album)
‘Silly Boy’ (from 2022 ‘MEN’ EP)
‘How To Make A Béchamel Sauce In 10 Steps (With Pictures)’ (unreleased)
‘I Didn’t Come Here For Art’ (unreleased)
As Lynks and their dancers departed the stage, the giant red hands were removed and an assemblage of synthesizers, drums and a grand piano was refined in stage presence and final line checks commenced. Soon after, the lights went down slowly and a cacophony of glitching synths and overlapping voices flooded the room, screeching to a halt as John Grant walked on and hit us with the opening song of the set, ‘That’s The Good News’. A bold choice for a start to the set, we witness John standing still in front of his microphone, vocally warbled with occasional usage of vocoder and talkbox as his band make their way to the stage one by one.
The groovy synthpop of ‘Disappointing’ from the ‘Grey Tickles, Black Pressure’ album showcases John’s distinctive baritone singing voice that could challenge that of Stephin Merritt, carried further by fleeting hall reverb. The equally funky, yet fast-paced lyrical delivery of the title track from ‘Boy From Michigan’ sees something strangely Scott Walker-ian about John’s stance: this theatrical, powerful voice against such bewildering synth arrangements evokes memories of the late artist so potently. Following the ghostly and instrumentally scant ‘It Doesn’t Matter To Him’, we come to the first track chosen from the latest ‘The Art Of The Lie’ album, ‘Meek AF’, which sees the drummer now jamming away on bass guitar, as well as John armed with a keytar which he uses to implement some great synth solos towards the end of the song.
John takes a moment to say hi to the crowd before he hits us with a three-song section of the set just by himself at his grand piano. The first of these, ‘Touch And Go’ welcomes some gorgeous, rich chord work, and a ghostly falsetto vocal in the song’s final leg, while the last song of this streak, ‘Is He Strange’ exercises more of his baritone vocal range, with some slick descending melody lines in the verses. However, the second track of this trifecta, the title track from ‘Queen Of Denmark’, remains to be not just one of my favourite John Grant songs, but one of my favourite songs of all-time; the messages of depression, betrayal and, the way I interpret the lyrics, personal redemption: “You’re just a sucker, but we’ll see who gets the last laugh; who knows, maybe you’ll get to be the next Queen of Denmark”.
As John wanders off stage for a brief moment, the band tune back up the night’s proceedings with ‘All That School For Nothing’, gradually building back up a wall of synth funk before John returns, this time, donning a long black cape. The fan-favourite ‘Black Belt’ from ‘Pale Green Ghosts’ takes a very sleazy tone, with some warm synth textures in between verses, while its smooth transition into ‘Marz’, one of my dad’s favourite tracks, leads to a surprisingly effective rearrangement. Instead of the macabre soft rock of the original, we are treated with a more progressive electronic feel that the likes of Isao Tomita or Jean-Michel Jarre would have conjured up.
We are treated with more piano-based tracks from John Grant, starting with a track called ‘Substitution’, written for a reimagining of the Christopher Isherwood novel ‘A Single Man’, in collaboration with the Royal Ballet and Opera. The song itself is centered around the notion of people in the 1960s and 70s trying to “diffuse” homosexuality with psychology, backed with some dense chord work from John and a wistfully ethereal synth solo from one of his band members. The track ‘Glacier’, another favourite of mine, notable for a feature with the sorely-missed Sinead O’Connor, features a marvellous epic songwriting slant and one of my favourite choruses of his, while the title track from ‘Grey Tickles, Black Pressure’ sees the return of that classically mellow John Grant sound that I love so much, implementing, simply, piano, bass and drums, centering around a midlife crisis.
For the final leg of the main set, John and his cohorts make a swift jump back into his sordid synthpop aesthetic, beginning with the lead single from ‘The Art Of The Lie’, ‘It’s A Bitch’. Not a favourite upon release, but this track has definitely grown on me having heard it in a live setting, evidently winning over the audience too with full movement from everyone in the main arena. Following the instantly recognisable square wave synths of ‘He’s Got His Mother’s Hips’, we come to the final track of the main set, ‘Chicken Bones’, where we see John and the band engage in possibly the most conventional sonic soundscape of the entire performance, stripped down to the core arrangements found in ‘Grey Tickles, Black Pressure’, playing around in solos and jams before walking off-stage to rapturous applause.
Before long, John returns, albeit via one last costume change, now wearing a blue surplice, for a two-song encore that ends the evening on a high. First, we have the penultimate track from ‘The Art Of The Lie’, entitled ‘Laura Lou’, which sees John standing solely at a synthesizer, employing some warm vocoded vocals, in a spacious yet chilling atmosphere. John gives us one last goodbye before heading into the best song of the night, and my favourite John Grant song as a whole, ‘GMF’ (which stands for Greatest Motherf**ker). This track is one of the best examples of self-analysis, love and acceptance with the lyric “Don’t forget, you could be laughing 65% more of the time” echoing through the Brighton Dome, whilst the LEDs on the synthesizer handled by the band throughout the night spelling out “GMF” in big, bright red lettering. As the final notes of the song drew the show to a close, the crowd began to dissipate, waving goodbye to their beloved synthpop troubadour.
John Grant delivered a truly euphoric and powerful performance; I felt so honoured to be in the presence of an artist that continues to blur the lines between genres, and explore and amplify stories within his songwriting that most people wouldn’t dare to touch.
John Grant setlist:
‘That’s The Good News’ (from 2010 ‘Queen Of Denmark’ album, deluxe edition)
‘Disappointing’ (from 2015 ‘Grey Tickles, Black Pressure’ album)
‘Boy From Michigan’ (from 2018 ‘Boy From Michigan’ album)
‘It Doesn’t Matter To Him’ (from 2013 ‘Pale Green Ghosts’ album)
‘Meek AF’ (from 2024 ‘The Art Of The Lie’ album)
‘Touch And Go’ (from 2018 ‘Love Is Magic’ album)
‘Queen Of Denmark’ (from 2010 ‘Queen Of Denmark’ album)
‘Is He Strange’ (from 2018 ‘Love Is Magic’ album)
‘All That School For Nothing’ (from 2024 ‘The Art Of The Lie’ album)
‘Black Belt’ (from 2013 ‘Pale Green Ghosts’ album)
‘Marz’ (from 2010 ‘Queen Of Denmark’ album)
‘Substitution’ (unreleased)
‘Glacier’ (from 2013 ‘Pale Green Ghosts’ album)
‘Grey Tickles, Black Pressure’ (from 2015 ‘Grey Tickles, Black Pressure’ album)
‘It’s A Bitch’ (from 2024 ‘The Art Of The Lie’ album)
‘He’s Got His Mother’s Hips’ (from 2018 ‘Love Is Magic’ album)
‘Chicken Bones’ (from 2010 ‘Queen Of Denmark’ album)
(encore)
‘Laura Lou’ (from 2024 ‘The Art Of The Lie’ album)
‘GMF’ (from 2013 ‘Pale Green Ghosts’ album)
