Following the release of his new album Pure Gardiya on May 27, Nick Allbrook played in front of fifty people at PBHFCLUB on Tuesday. It was a one man performance and having more spectators would have perhaps created an imbalance. Allbrook has an elfin figure, he’s got bleached hair and a wee frame. Alone on the stage with his drum machine and guitar setup, he faced the small audience.
Nick Allbrook’s career has long been a series of appearances in bands, often his own actually, but he rarely stays put too long before hopping onto a new project. He either quits them -Tame Impala who he played bass with – or takes small breaks from them (POND, Allbrook/Avery, Mink Mussel Creek).
Awkward, yet not shy, Nick Allbrook plays and sings this poppy slowed down glam
See POND play “Eye Pattern Blindness” on KEXP back in 2012 with Allbrook singing.
This solo tour leaves him to his own devices. Awkward, yet not shy, he plays and sings this poppy slowed-down glam, says a few words in between songs while pushing buttons on the drum machine. He apologises for his cracking voice, says he’s got a frog in his throat. At one point he laid the guitar down and went into karaoke mode, stepped down from the stage and walked through the rows of seats. With a great big shiny pearl necklace, he picked someone’s lap to lie down on.
Allbrook is a huge fan of rhythm and blues
Music-wise, Allbrook uses delay, fuzz, pitch finders on his guitar. He performed some songs from Allbrook/Avery and also pulled out a flute, doing quite well when playing it. Then came a moment where his main influences kicked in. Allbrook is a huge fan of rhythm and blues, his favourite album being Andre 3000’s The Love Below. He started singing a cover. It turns out it was a partial cover. He changed the lyrics on Bowie’s R&B hit “Right” and played it real slow.
The whole thing turned out quite pleasant. Yet I’ve never seen anyone come out of a concert so furious, going on about the artist lacking a message. The last time someone walked out like that was probably during the dinosaur scene in T. Malick’s Tree of Life.
Review by Patrick Bird
