pogoism

Alphabeat

Speakeasy

Monday 14th July 2008

After having cancelled their date in May, Alphabeat brought their cheery 80s-inspired europop to rather warm bar in Belfast.

Support came from local band AJ Suzuki, who I wasn’t overly impressed with on the night, but having listened to some more of their stuff on their MySpace, it’s growing on me. One thing irked me, however. They encouraged under-age people to get their mates to buy them alcohol. It’s one of my pet hates when bands do stuff like this – it’s not cool, it’s pathetic. Anyway…

Then, at around 9pm, and after whipping up the crowd with a long intro, Alphabeat came on. They did most (if not all) of the tracks from the UK release of their album. It was interesting to see that not many people seemed to know the 3 new tracks on the UK release (Go Go, Touch Me Touching You and Public Image). It really was boiling, with Anders SG drenched in sweat by the 2nd song, no doubt due to his deranged dancing!

Personal highlights for me were Fantastic 6 (woo woo!), Go Go and the encore, Fascination. The gig was let down a bit however by the cover of the Sugababes track Push the Button. If you’re going to cover a song, you have to make some effort to make it your own, and I don’t think Alphabeat managed that.

But, overall, a great gig, well worth the wait!

After the jump, the video for the new version of Boyfriend and a few more (not very good) photos…