Brakes @ Paradiso

The pineapple seen in the background was thrown into the audience before "a song about animals and fruits", 'Porcupine or Pineapple'

After being a fan of singer Eamon Hamilton's previous band British Sea Power (he was temporarily recruited to play keyboards at their live shows) I was very curious about his newest project, Brakes.

Their support act was Spinal Tap-esque heavy metal band Saxon. By support act I mean the entrance to the small hall (where Brakes were playing) is opposite the entrance to the balcony of the main hall, so the few people who arrived early for Brakes found themselves waiting amongst headbanging bikers. It was an experience I was prepared to forget until I turned around and saw the whole of Brakes were watching too.

After a few songs I walked over to the small hall convinced it should be filling up by then. Evidently, I was wrong:


By the start of their 30 song set, which included a mix of tracks from their two albums, a few b-sides and two Camper Van Beethoven covers ('We Saw Jerry's Daughter' and 'Shut us Down'), there were about 60 people in the hall.

The band surprised me with their ability to capture the sort of energy you'd expect from a punk band when playing songs they described as "jangly guitar pop" and "barndance country" and several 10 second tracks such as 'Cheney', with lyrics like " ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR. Cheney, Cheney, Cheney.... Cheney, Cheney, Cheney, Cheney... STOP BEING SUCH A DICKKKKK". The audience was fantastic, I think this was partly due to the fact that there were a group of about 10 people who had been following them on this tour and were therefore extremely enthusiastic (starting a Cotton Eye Joe style barndance during Brakes' Johnny Cash cover "Jackson", for example).

The band seemed to really be enjoying themselves, so much so that guitarist Tom White got through about 4 changes of guitar due to broken strings. However, I'm certain that singer Eamon Hamilton had enough energy in his voice alone to captivate the audience. This is a band that are infinitely better live than on record, and judging by the size of the audience last night, they are terribly underrated in that respect.

Amongst the highlights of the gig for me was 'No Return', their most mellow track, where drummer Alex took to the guitar. Eamon's voice really shone on such a quiet song and the sounds coming from Tom White's guitar were quite simply stunning. During their set closer, 'Huevos Rancheros' (direct translation= Spicy Eggs), Tom jumped into the audience during his solo and proceeded to throw himself about in front of the stage.

Brakes definitely set themselves apart in my mind from any of the bands that they have been compared to so often (The Rakes, The Futureheads, etc) and it was a highly enjoyable experience.