Sunshine Frisbee Laserbeam have just released their cracking new album `Mortuary Pantomime` and are about to head out on a brief UK tour in support of said album but prior to this trek, they decided to launch the release with a hometown show at The Hare and Hounds. The event is advertised as `A Summer All Dayer` and the occasion allowed five bands to showcase their talents prior to the headliners.
Sadly, I only managed to catch one of the supports, another localish outfit called The Courtesy Group. The band have two albums `Tradesman`s Entrance` and `2nd City Liquor` and the majority of their thirty-minute set was culled from these releases.
`You And Your Grinding Service` kicked off this eclectic performance with `Across The Sky` and `Back Out The Fuss` in hot pursuit. We enjoy what could possibly be called a bit of performance art during `In The Rock, On The Rock` a tale of drug taking as singer Al Hutchins exited the room briefly and returned through the crowd on all fours. This avant-garde performance continued with `A Heckory Base Day` before closing with `Less Old Air`. As one of the band members had to catch his last train, i`m not sure if the set ended early but singer Al Hutchins entertained us with a couple of his poems which was an unexpected but enjoyable bonus.
Sunshine Frisbee Laserbeam arrived with little fuss and shared around an hour`s worth of material old and new. The show opened with the delightful earworm `ESP` from the latest release but their back catalogue was shared with numbers such as `Blackout Cowboy`, `Mrs Jr Hartley` and `Everybody Sucks`. They have an interesting sound and at one point my wife whispered to me that she felt it was like Blur meets The Flaming Lips but afterwards felt there was a touch of Janes Addiction so make of that what you will.
Highlights for me though were numbers from the new album with `Apocalypse` and title track `Mortuary Pantomime` and I felt that there`s a maturity about their newer songs. I`d never managed to catch Sunshine Frisbee Laserbeam before. A group that has been labelled as everyone’s favourite weird-on-purpose rock band and I must say they didn`t disappoint.
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