This was a bit of an adventure. I love Phosphorescent, serious amounts. Recently I’ve been listening ridiculously to Pride and Aw Come Aw Wry and bits to the others too. When I saw he/they’d announced European dates I was so excited until I realised the London one was on the same day as Final Fantasy… Luckily he was playing in Brighton the day before and it didn’t clash with anything and I optimistically thought I could get to brighton leisurely then sit by the sea for a bit and then wander over and listen to a nice bit of phosphorescent then pop home. When I actually got to Brighton it was raining and really cold and I couldn’t find the venue for a while. Luckily when I did find it it was nice and warm and pretty small.
The support was Danny George Wilson who is also in other bands like Danny and the Champions of the World (I guess he’s the main person?) who played at Wood but we only heard them from a distance and didn’t like the voice. The same thing happened here, it started with lovely guitary stuff, very promising, but as soon as he started singing it was a bit old fashioned in a bad way and not that great. He covered My Girl and Born Free which quite a lot of the audience rather enjoyed, not me though.
After a not too long wait Phosphorescent came on. The nice man putting on the gig presented them and it was very sweet and enthusiastic. Although Phosphorescent is basically a one man band, live they are a five piece. The drummer had had an acccident with a bottle opener and had split up his arm and had to spend hours in hospital in Paris but he played with one arm and you wouldn’t have been able to tell. Occasionally Matthew Houck joined in on a cymbal when he wasn’t singing. They played a lot of the songs I like but I wasn’t really too bothered which ones they played because I tend just to listen to the whole albums not individual songs. They did a little section of the Willie Nelson covers which were lovely and they played a really good version of I’m a full grown man (i will lay in the grass all day) and they played Wolves and Cocaine Lights aftew which I went so I could catch a train that would get me back at a reasonably sensible time. Wolves was beautiful as I expected and I’m so glad I got to hear it live. It was definitely worth going to Brighton for this and I will definitely see them again any chance I get.
