Sebadoh, Concorde 2, Brighton, April 27

2:23pm Monday 28th April 2008

Sebadoh may comprise three songwriters, but sadly only one of those is Lou Barlow, a fact underlined when the re-formed line-up of the Boston band played Brighton 15 years after they originally split-up.

Whenever Barlow was at the mic, semi-acoustic guitar in hand, you were treated to some of the band's greatest songs, shorn of the tape hiss and low production values of the albums.

Unfortunately when the band switched positions to let Eric Gaffney or Jason Lowenstein play their songs the energy of the gig dipped a little, not helped by a faulty bass amp.

Gaffney and Lowenstein were always the noisier little brothers on the Sebadoh albums.

And although the audience wasn't subjected to one of Gaffney's more whacked-out noise experiments, songs such as his Moldy Bread or Lowenstein's Flood never quite lived up to Barlow-penned classics Brand New Love, the heartbreaking Soul And Fire or the anthemic show-closer Gimme Indie Rock.

The show took songs from Barlow and Gaffney's early tape experiments right up to the later Gaffney-less period of albums like Harmacy and Bakesale.

And there was a laconic, cool edge to the night, with plenty of self-deprecating humour.

During the first equipment meltdown Gaffney happily sang an acapella version of Queen's Brighton Rock, while Barlow's response to someone yelling out "play whatever you want" was: "It's more play whatever we can".

Pushing 30 songs into the long set certainly meant value for money for Sebadoh fans - here's hoping this is not a one-off event.

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