Balthazar

A few months ago, I went to Edinburgh with @artminx to see Local Natives playing. In the event, I enjoyed the support band, Balthazar, more and on Thursday we met up with @samjpaterson and @jools_wilson to watch them play at Brighton's Great Escape.

It was a gorgeous sunny day, of the kind that makes one wonder why living in Cumbria seems like a good idea, and we had an enjoyable early evening wandering around Brighton, stopping for drinks and eating fish and chips on the beach, before settling in at the venue, which was a pub, to wait for the band.

I've mentioned before what a delight and a privilege it is to see great bands in small venues and this was certainly one of those occasions. While the ladies settled in at the front, I went to the back of the room, still close enough to see everything that was going on.

Balthazar was excellent. The band played less than a dozen numbers but they were all brilliant, combining elements of Talking Heads, Elbow and Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds with their own talents. If you're interested, you could try this for starters: Sinking Ship.