The music cuts out, singer Eddie Argos has some wisdom to dispense to his adoring audience, and he's not going to wait for the song to end.
Argos says he got an e-mail from a fan who recently felt inspired by the ode-to-unrequited-love song "Emily Kane," and took action. This concerned him greatly. With an English accent that would make Austin Powers proud, Argos exclaims, "Don't listen to people in bands!"
His band, Art Brut, was playing a Tuesday night show at the Black Cat but the place was packed like a Friday. The group is pretty good at playing rock music but it's Argos' enthusiastic-about-everything lyrics that steal the show. Art Brut's first U.K. single contains the chorus, "Formed a band! We formed a band! Look at us! We formed a band!" Their latest, about discovering new love, finds Argos bursting: "I've seen her naked ... twice! I've seen her naked ... twice!"
The band never forgets to involve the crowd. Before "Moving to L.A.," in which Argos ponders the pros of leaving behind the awful English weather, he asked the crowd to point to Los Angeles. At the end of "Modern Art," about how visiting the Tate and the Pompidou made him want to rock out, the singer jumped into the crowd and started moshing.
During the encore, the band led an infectious chant: "Art Brut, top of the pops!" For the next couple of minutes, Argos switched the subject to whatever sprang to mind. The band doesn't have an ego; a lot of things are top of the pops, apparently.
Art Brut, of course, is not very well known this side of the Atlantic. It is one of a whole breed of young British bands that combine English wit with infectious and original tunes influenced by punk and classic rock. Fans of the Kaiser Chiefs, Franz Ferdinand and Arctic Monkeys should take notice.
Opening for Art Brut was the Spinto Band, a Wilmington, Del., group that's recently been garnering a following in the United Kingdom. The six-man band, which features three electric guitars and sometimes a mandolin, warmed up the crowd with a set of clever and upbeat rock 'n' roll.
The Spinto Band is not quite as enthusiastic as Art Brut, but then that would be basically impossible. Lead singer Nick Krill, who graduated from AU's College of Arts and Sciences in 2005, has a look and frenetic nervousness akin to David Byrne from the Talking Heads. His bandmates meanwhile are constantly smiling and rocking out to the grooves.
Art Brut struck the final chord and ran off the stage, but the crowd was still hungry for British wit. Good thing the band was selling T-shirts that proudly proclaim, "Popular culture no longer applies to me"
