Words and Images by Joseph Murphy

It’s not often I find that I’m heading to a gig of a band that I’ve not listened to prior to my attendance of the show, but for Brigitte Calls Me Baby, I wanted to experience firsthand (and with fresh ears) what people are saying are one of the best current live bands. And they didn’t disappoint.

A phenomenally melancholy experience, yet one that is rippling with arena style sound, the band deliver an aesthetic of mystery but with a down-to-earth longing and hope. Akin to the vocal style of The Smiths’ languorous lines, the anthemic force of The Killers and The 1975’s modernistic messaging, BCMB serves a slice of the Chicago sound, whipped up with something intrinsically British on the side.

Enveloped in smoke and black outfits and outlined by the cooly illuminating stage lights, the band emerge. Aside from several shapes, the show began with a ringing swell from bassist Devin Wessels. A personal highlight performance from the bassist (no bass player bias here), alongside the silhouette of his most excellent hair. The room was packed, beginning to sway and move, under the band’s authoritative influence of their clearly die-hard fanbase.

The personal favourite of the night was the thrashing ‘Slumber Party’. Drummer Jeremy Benshish simply goes to work, leaving a machine-gun spread of percussion under lead vocalist Wes Leavins’ arcing, emotive and passion-wrought lines. I’m a sucker for a good unison break, which the group employs throughout, speared by Jack Fleugel’s hungering guitar motif.

If I had to plot another highlight, ‘I Can Take the Sun Out of The Sky’ would be up there. There’s a specific 80’s style in the track, which again I’m a sucker for. But each verse builds into what culminates as that anthemic rock that I see as part of the band’s core. Vocals that are richly smooth, a thumping rhythm section, over deliciously overdriven guitar chords. It’s a song full of some kind of hope, a very light and vox-led tune, performed with an air of improvisatory runs from Leavins.

In fact, the majority of the performances of the ‘Irreversible’ album fell as some of the standout moments from the group. ‘I Danced With Another Lover In My Dream’ jumps out at the ear, with an excellently discordant tone of the guitars, outlined by the haunting yet conjunct melodies. It’s a wavering dramaticism from the group, ripped through by an often cutting and metallic instrumentation. If further comparison is what you’re after, ‘There Always’ is an intersection between The Cure and Pulp. Both perfectly theatrical, both perfectly harmonious in their instrumentation, with curling, circling riffs, hopping basslines and a sheer desperation in the vocals.

As I said, I’d kept my ears clean of BCMB before stepping in the building, but there’s a twinge of regret in doing so. I simply wish I’d heard it before, then I would’ve been in that mess of floor filling folks screaming the lyrics back at that stage. Since the group so clearly take the best bits from the bands mentioned here, blending it all into something which comes out as entirely new, I’m looking forward to what the group’s future looks like.