Black Lips live in Brighton photo: Brooke Campbell-Johnston
Black Lips have been carting their chaotic rock n roll show across the globe for years, but have only achieved anything approaching “success” in the last 12 months. Much to the annoyance of their hardcore fans apparently, selling out to the scenester driven indie scene and putting out their seminal Good Bad Not Evil on uber-cool Vice records.
Tonight saw the end of the England leg of their tour and it was a sweaty affair as expected. Boys were hurting each other and girls were throwing their booty around, because if you stopped moving, you opened yourself up to physical abuse.
The tunes were all rock by numbers, but performed with a swagger and arrogance that felt appropriate in this era of sensitive, disenchanted pop rock nonsense.
Black Lips have porn star moustaches, and £30 guitars and will give you crabs after the gig. For free. This is their life now, playing dirty clubs and signing albums for drunk delinquents. Living the dream.
In India recently, Black Lips got in trouble for on-stage snogs and a bit of indecent exposure. Perhaps Brighton in all its liberal, taboo-free glory didn’t have any boundaries left to cross, but it didn’t stop them raising the roof with catastrophic riffs and psychedelic freak-outs.
High energy, total commitment and well worth the £9. Whilst new album 200 Million Thousand won’t be reinventing garage or raising the benchmark for American rock and roll, it will pack guilty giggles and a spunky attitude a plenty.
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