I'm delighted that Mike is back, this time sharing his experience of BC Camplight at Electric in Bristol last Thursday (30th). Over to you, Mike!
How often do you read a review of a gig where the writer had no real knowledge of the artist until 27 hours earlier?
Let’s be honest usually it’s from a fan who was looking forward to this gig for weeks/months and can tell you that their fandom was right all along.
Well, I got the chance to see BC Camplight [aka Brian Christinzio] when a combination of a very cheap ticket and two friends who might come with me occurred simultaneously. So on a night in late October I found myself at Electric in Bristol watching a guy who I couldn’t name a song by two days ago.
This is BC Camplight’s first UK tour of larger venues. It’s also the first night of this tour and the crowd is…erm..sparse. When British Birds (the support) enter the fray it has the feel of a COVID audience – everyone exactly one arm span away from each other. I enjoy their noise – it has echoes of early blur there in places and my friends with me suggest the late 20th century never really went away…Merry-Go-Round was a highlight.
At 9pm the main act is on with a band of 5. With the 27 hours I had available I tried to listen to his last two albums on YouTube and I was impressed with what I heard. References to Homes Under The Hammer and Dickinson’s Real Deal from an American make me warm to him more so.
The band are tight and BC himself is plonked centre stage on keyboards occasionally rising from his seat and taking the microphone with him. In this regard he reminds me slightly of John Grant. Like John Grant, Brian has lived an interesting life where demons have been at play. Drink and drug addiction have affected him but the biggest effect on his life has been living in Manchester for the last ten years. Which of those 3 would be the worst I’ll let the reader work out.
11 songs are worked through before the encore – the biggest cheers of the night are for the sublime Kicking Up a Fuss and The Last Rotation Of Earth. Brian is a natural storyteller and he reveals that one song he hadn’t played before tonight as he didn’t like the person he was when he wrote it. We could suggest at this juncture that if Morrissey adopted the same stance then it would be a pretty quiet evening. By the end of the 4 songs in the encore we had all agreed that BC Camplight puts on a very good show and we will be recommending people to go see him.
Why the review? Well it is easy to say no to gigs as we are tired or busy or don’t like the sound of the artist. I say there will come a day where we can’t get to a gig or can’t stand for the duration or whatever so make sure you go out and see bands while you can or these venues will disappear.
Thanks as always, Mike, especially as I know next to nothing about either of these bands. I have the title track of The Last Rotation Of Earth in my collection due to its inclusion on Mojo magazine's Best Of 2023 compilation CD, but that's it.
I've headed to both artists' Bandcamp pages to sample their music and included examples below. I really liked what I heard and I will be back with my shopping bag for December's Bandcamp Friday.
Thanks also to Mike for his close up and personal photo of Brian.
The photo of (i'm guessing) Bobby Mambo from British Birds is lifted from their Instagram page and taken outside Electric in the summer when they played an in-store at Rough Trade Records, across the road from the venue.
Mike and I will be meeting up later this month in Bristol for a gig which I'm very much looking forward to.
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