Field Music


****

Komedia, Brighton, March 8

BACK in the early Naughties, during the so-called New Rock Revolution, Franz Ferdinand declared that they wanted to make music that made girls dance.

It was a bold statement which was sadly buried under the weight of terrible landfill Indie that came a few years after.

Field Music, two brothers from the North East who take their cues from the narrow but deep depths of white bands unafraid of the word “funk”, have kept their heads above the musical mud.

David and Peter Brewis have been refining their sound since 2004, evolving from your average indie white band to something that, at that their best, could strut alongside the Average White Band.

From the moment they got on stage at the Komedia there wasn’t a single shoulder which didn’t move with the groove. 

Count Me In, their latest single, shares a theme with Talking Heads’ Once In A Lifetime but sacrifices post-punk archness for something unashamedly stripped-back and raw. 

The only (slight) complaint was that Field Music, supported by a tight-as-a-drum backing band including bass, keyboards and occasional flute, were packed into the Komedia’s basement stage. 

If I can paraphrase BBC Six Music’s Craig Charles, it was like trying to squeeze a two pound bag of funk into a one-pound stage.