A band deciding to tour performing their debut material years after its release is nothing new although I have never seen anybody take it so literally and simply play the first album song by song, cover to cover. Anyhow, for me personally the most interesting part of the evening was the first supporting act, this (from the looks of it) very young man from London - Sivu. I generally hate these mellow one-man-plus-acoustic-guitar singer/songwriter shows (I'm still being haunted by memories of Marco Z) however this one was strangely compelling. Check the boy out if you get the chance.

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Out of all the gigs I've been to over here, this was the first one that got the audience dancing. A thoroughly enjoyable evening courtesy of Pink Narcissus, Clowns and the headliner - Fat Goth.

Fat Goth

What can I say, really... Other than it's Square-freaking-pusher! Back in October I could only hope that one day instead of being high up on the balcony, sneaking my camera past security, I will be down there in the pit. But I was last Saturday and I have the snaps to prove it.

Squarepusher

I certainly do think Brighton's local scene is really fantastic so don't get me wrong when I say sometimes it's like a breath of fresh air to get out of the dark stuffy little clubs into a venue like The Corn Exchange and watch an act as renowned and experienced as Calexico. The three songs the press was allowed to shoot wasn't much but here's the modest outcome.

Calexico

Few musical acts have a more unusual line-up as AK/DK - 2 guys, 2 drum kits and a bunch of keyboards, pedals and other electronic gear. Even more unusually, it doesn't translate into an artsy-fartsy highbrow concept performance but is poppy, catchy and fun to watch.

AK/DK

Boys of all ages are known for their love for toys but this night was all about the girls and their weird machinery, unusual musical instruments and spooky dolls. Sarah Angliss, Bela Emerson and Ambla Quickbeam - all local and well respected on the electronic scene usually dominated by men.

Sarah Angliss

James Brown raised from the dead, Marilyn Manson turned out to have a much prettier face than everyone anticipated, Motörhead forgot how to play their own songs and AC/DC went pop. That sums up last night's events at The Prince Albert.

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The small stuffy upstairs room of The Prince Albert in Brighton was filled solid last night at the sold-out penultimate night of Sea Monsters festival that featured 5 performances from local acts.

Sea Monsters 3

Brighton Noise, our cherished local gig guide, has recently become our cherished local gig organizer and decided to treat everyone to a free Christmas gig headlined by Negative Pegasus and supported by Traams and Bitches. Appropriately called Noise Night #2, it was filled with some serious drum and guitar banging.

Negative Pegasus

Blood, sweat, tattoos, piercings and really REALLY loud music at The Hope in Brighton courtesy of the insane Rodeo Death Burger, somewhat awkward Exit International, surprisingly funky and soulful Castrovalva and the headliners, Bad for Lazarus. And their hair.

Bad for Lazarus

Californian neo-post-punkers (don't you just hate these kind of labels?) The Soft Moon have graced The Green Door Store in Brighton with a performance last night supported by a Romanian... Italian... Romanian-Italian? one-man act Dracula Lewis. It was a very international evening on and off stage, one particular member of the audience decided to showcase his southern way of being and ended up shirtless attempting to dance with all the ladies. Certainly a night to remember.

The Soft Moon

Whenever you go on an assignment to shoot a gig you never know what you're going to get in terms of lighting. More often than not you need to struggle with a large aperture and exposure time just barely freezing the artists' motion and pray the images will be in focus enough to compensate for that slight motion blur here and there and the aberrations from using the lens wide open. Not this time, in this case the lights went off completely just as the performance was about to begin.

Instead of the more traditional continuous lighting, the entire concert was illuminated by 3 strobes shooting bursts of sharp light from 3 different locations around the stage. This is actually pretty awesome, like a bunch of flashguns at your disposal. With a difference - the flashes of light were not in sync with the shutter release. But there's an easy way around this, setting the exposure time to a much longer value, something around 1/8th to 1/4th of a second. No need to worry about motion blur, the strobes will still freeze it. The long exposure time is actually only there to raise your chances that a burst of light will happen while you have the shutter open. Using such a long time may also result in a multiple exposure effect that happens when a strobe fires twice while the exposure is taking place. Which results in some pretty funky images.

Last but not least, Vision Fortune rock. Period. I would gladly pay to see a gig where they're the headliner (last night they were supporting Halls).

Vision Fortune

Tonight's performance. What can I say... Noisy, chaotic, imperfect, memorable. Here are some noisy, chaotic and imperfect shots.

Guy McKnight, The Eighties Matchbox B-line Disaster

Tickets to gigs such as this go like hot cakes so if you don't act fast you end up somewhere on the 2nd balcony, like we did. But even from this perspective one might attempt to capture something interesting. Especially if that something is the whole freaking stage! The lighting conditions were definitely the most unconventional of all the gigs I've shot and required low ISO and a stopped-down lens, the complete opposite to the usual settings when capturing a live performance. Click through for the results!

Squarepusher

Since I'm quite new to Brighton & Hove, Brighton Noise is basically saving my life in terms of what to see and where to see it. Recently I wrote them asking if they'd have me as a contributor, next thing I know they're getting me a pit pass to Portico Quartet supported by Taylor McFerrin at Concorde 2. It just so happened they were sending a reviewer there but were still missing a willing photographer. I jumped at the opportunity and even went as far as to get yet another lens (lucky number 7), the marvellous 35/1.8, the best lens 120 pounds can buy. Click through to see the outcome.

Portico Quartet