Just got back from an amazing gig at Digital. Erland Øye’s The Whitest Boy Alive took the roof off a venue normally more associated with boompty boompty type beats than laid back Norwegian disco funk (if I have just coined a new pigeonhole, apologies). Sunday nights can be a bit hit and miss when it comes to live music, but this was absolutely spot on.
Support came from Bergen’s The New Wine, who played a good half hour long set of pleasant pop that was well suited to the task of preparing Brighton for the return of the TWBA after last year’s night at the neighboring Brighton Coalition.
The main act got on stage promptly at half nine, to rapturous applause from an expectant audience (many of whom knew the words to every song).
The majority of the set came from excellent new album “Rules”, which has been on heavy iPod rotation in recent weeks. But, in true Erland Øye style, there were plenty of unexpected treats sprinkled in through the set, including - but not limited to - Show Me Love (Robin S), You Don’t Know Me (Armand Van Helden), I Chase The Devil/Outta Space (Max Romeo/Prodigy), err… there were more too, but I can’t quite remember. All jolly good fun though.
The atmosphere throughout the night was fantastic and Øye is a great entertainer behind those big trademark specs.
The band were clearly connecting with the Brighton crowd and bounced back on stage for an extensive encore, which went on well after the night was supposed to be over… the crowd eventually got out after 11pm, but not before the grinning singer had danced through the throng of people on the dancefloor, up the stairs at the back of the venue and on to the balcony for a quick boogie with the crowd upstairs. Fantastic stuff.
This really was an electrifying Sunday night at Digital. Sweat was dripping from the ceiling, dancers had to be shuffled off the stage by burly security when Erland Øye got down and dirty in the crowd; every last person in the club was grinning by the end of the night. But not as widely as the band themselves, who clearly had a great time too.
