MOJO’s Great Escape: Day 3 Blog -

MOJO’s Great Escape: Day 3 Blog

4:58 PM GMT 19/05/2008

AFTER THE BEER-THROWING MAYHEM of the night before, Day 3 conditions inside Brighton’s Old Market venue were sticky underfoot. But we were already feeling rather sentimental about the place, built in 1828 to house Brunswick Town’s – wait for it – old market, and still overlooked in an avuncular fashion by the bust of the late Admiral Sir Lindsay Bryson.

A riding school for some decades from the 1840s, it was regularly used for something called “leaping practice” – something that stood it in good stead over the weekend.

Saturday’s MOJO-sponsored leaping began with a very different sort of academy: David Brewis’s School Of Language, aka the spiky pop half of Field Music’s fraternal DNA. At the end of a passionate set featuring brother Peter on bass and The Golden Virgins’ Neil Bassett on drums, Brewis leapt off stage to do a stint on the merch stand flogging his own CD. Très punk rock.

Next up, Dev Hynes – aka Lightspeed Champion – offered a fascinating deconstruction of his brilliant debut album, Falling Off The Lavender Bridge. Hynes played solo, with the treble on his plexiglass electric axe permanently in the red, like Billy Bragg gone heavy metal. But with the instant vocal melodies of Galaxy Of The Lost, Midnight Surprise and Tell Me What It’s Worth, he can do what he likes. These songs are indestructible, but surely he must get very hot in that hat.

As Fujiya & Miyagi’s anthemic Krautfunkpop opus Ankle Injuries resounded through the Old Market, the roar of approval was enough to remind you that these local heroes are a group in its pomp. David Best’s breathy, stream-of-consciousness semi-raps were punctuated by punctilious Jazzmaster intercessions and swathed in the ecstatic swirls of Steve Lewis’s synths and sutchlike, while new drummer Lee Adams takes it to a new dynamic level. Now a perfect union of machine and man, they’ve just signed with those topnotch talent-spotters, Full Time Hobby.

Headliners Black Mountain were the night’s hot ticket Brightonwide, and MOJO were destined to spend Sunday’s train trip home apologising to unlucky punters who’d failed to get in. If you were there, you know you saw something special – perhaps the point where a great band graduated to godhood. Now so assured they can afford not to fire all their guns at once, and lengthily showcasing the slowburning gems to be found on their recent In The Future elpee, they overcame singer-guitarist Stephen McBean’s lingering lurgi with a dread gravity that threatened to suck in all light, leaving the Grace Slick yawp of Amber Webber as the only thing left in the universe. All this, plus an unprecedentedly funky Druganaut and a shout-out to MOJO Dude-At-Large Gabe Soria. We were spoiled.

And then it was over, three nights of music we like in Brighton. If you were there, we hope you enjoyed it. We did. Although, to be frank, the memory’s a bit shaky when it comes to the second half of The Hold Steady’s Friday night set. And were the MOJO team really seen surfing downhill on an airport trolley? No – that would have been ridiculous.

Writer: Danny Eccleston

Posted by Danny_Eccleston at 4:58 PM GMT 19/05/2008

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"Were the MOJO team REALLY seen surfing downhill on an airport trolley?"

No, that was just you, Danny Eccleston. Let's not try to diffuse responsibility for your drunken actions now.

Whiskey...straight...hmmm.

Posted by Lauren Kreisler at 6:22 PM GMT 20/05/2008 Report Abuse

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