Live Is Alive!
Artists announced
Find out who's playing at each Live Is Alive! event - four consecutive Saturday evenings of live music at Brighton Dome, from 17 October to 7 November 2020. Each event features local emerging artists and bands, programmed and presented in collaboration with grassroots music venues.
Find out more about Live is Alive! and how the collective of partners is raising awareness of the financial plight venues have faced since the coronavirus pandemic forced them to close their doors.
Sat 17 Oct 2020
West African fusion, funk, ska, electropop - an off-the-wall ode to Brighton’s cultural diversity and next-level underground talent.
Immersion presented by CHALK Live
Instrumental duo Malka Spigel and Colin Newman already have significant musical careers with the bands Minimal Compact and Wire respectively. But the work they create as Immersion occupies its own unique space. Since the early 1990s, they have developed a signature sound that is timeless and yet completely modern. Through 2020 the couple have been working on the recorded versions of the Nanocluster collaborations and their weekly radio show Swimming In Sound on Brighton based station Totally Radio / Slack City.
Bakk Lamp Fall presented by Latest Music Bar
Bakk Lamp Fall translates as ‘light into darkness’ in Senegalese language Wolof. Their music is a contemporary fusion with strong roots in the Baye Fall tradition from Touba, Senegal. The line-up combines an outstanding West African percussion section with some of the finest UK instrumentalists, and the vocal power of singer Khadim Sarr.
Yumi And the Weather presented by St. George’s Church
Yumi And The Weather is the music project of Brighton based singer, multi-instrumentalist and producer Ruby Taylor. Her debut self-titled album received support from BBC 6 Music presenters and Radio X's John Kennedy and was included in Electronic Sound magazine's top 20 albums of 2018. Yumi is releasing a new EP on Brighton’s Small Pond label in December, which she wrote and self-produced during lockdown.
The Bar Stool Preachers presented by The Pipeline
Proud of their Brighton roots, it couldn’t be more fitting that their return gig is at Brighton Dome. If you haven’t been to a Bar Stool Preachers show before, you’re in for a night of high energy, bringing their unique blend of political power and equality to the stage.
Sat 24 Oct 2020
Wrap your ears around a night of dramatic grunge punk from Brighton’s indie underground scene.
DITZ presented by The Hope & Ruin
DITZ are best known by their steadily-growing following, for delivering accomplished shows full of substance and organic excitement. The Brighton five-piece cite influences from 80s and 90s post-hardcore and noise rock to create forward-thinking rock/post-punk with vast arrays of pedal effects. Glastonbury Festival emerging talent and Green Man Rising longlistees, DITZ have toured Europe sharing stages with the likes of British Sea Power, JOHN, Drahla, Crows, Spectres and The Coathangers.
LibraLibra presented by Komedia
LibraLibra fuse adventurous beats and lairy, garage punk-infiltrated guitars; vocals that veer from searing emotional drama to camp self-parody and frenetic experimentation with pristine pop hooks. The band’s emphatic sound and liberating ethos have inspired an ardent community of fans, as well as pricking up ears in high places. Magnetic frontwoman and vocalist Beth Cannon leads with spiky, garage punk-laced alternative pop bangers through to guttural, kohl-smudged new romantic balladry.
Lambrini Girls presented by The Prince Albert
Despite being named after the beloved alcoholic beverage, the Brighton four-piece sound neither light nor fruity. Expect to knock back raw, face melting garage-punk!
Wife Swap USA presented by The Hope & Ruin
Combining the grit and social awareness of the likes of Idles and Slaves with a healthy dose of humour, Wife Swap USA subvert classic punk themes with snarling bitterness. The Brighton-based newcomers are ones to watch. They offer multi-layered music with lyrics to make you think, coupled with a don’t care attitude.
Sat 31 Oct 2020
A night of pungent power-punk presented by The Green Door Store and the Music Venue Alliance Brighton.
Demob Happy
Established three-piece combine sweet and sour lush melodies with heavy, gnarly guitars in an understated, almost '70s way. Originally from Newcastle and now based in Brighton, the band released their second album Holy Doom in 2018, followed by a support slot on Jack White’s world tour.
Sick Joy
Cutting together malign heaviness with acidic melody then tied in place with a dose of contagious pop, Sick Joy's 'noise-pop' echoes influences of the Pixies and Nirvana among others. The band moved to Brighton from Newcastle in 2016 and played their first sold out show at Patterns with fellow north-to-south bands Demob Happy and Tigercub.
Projector
The Brighton three-piece fuse the abrasive tendencies of Sonic Youth with the lush alt-pop of the 90's, inhabiting a space where the most infectious melodies sit alongside experimental musicality. Their blistering live show earned them Latitude Festival Highlights, a string of packed Great Escape shows and support with Blood Red Shoes, Kid Kapichi, Deap Vally, Tigercub and Xcerts.
CLT DRP
Hailing from Canada, Greece and Southampton respectively, band members Annie, Daphne and Scott collectively make up electro-punk powerhouse CLT DRP. The Brighton-based trio have just released their debut album, Without the Eyes on Small Pond recordings with influences ranging as far and wide as Death Grips to Peaches.
Sat 7 Nov 2020
A laid-back evening of subtle moves and tight grooves from jazz, soul, reggae and ska.
Dakka Skanks presented by The Prince Albert
Dakka Skanks bring hard reggae, ska, dub and punk rhythms together in a fresh style. Clara Byrne's mesmerising lead vocal cuts through like a wave of emotion, her lyrical integrity straight from the soul, with serious social and political issues explored through dramatic delivery.
Super Dupes presented by Komedia
Initially something of a social call, Super Dupes soon evolved into a zippy set of groovy and diverse material ranging somewhere between funk, jazz, Afrobeat and fusion. Super Dupes deliver melodic, hand clapping, foot stomping musical nuggets with passion and aplomb.
Normanton Street presented by The Old Market
Normanton Street’s soul/hip-hop sound is lyrically focused with three distinct vocals, jazz influenced guitars, warm bass grooves and tight rhythmic drums.
AFLO. and the Poets presented by Latest Music Bar
AFLO. and the Poets are a collective comprised of individually talented Black artists. Khanyisa (they/them) is a proud mixed raced, queer, non-binary soulful singer/songwriter mixing a fusion of soul, jazz, folk and funk who exudes tenderness, sincerity and sass. Priss (she/they) is a poet and spoken word artist telling their stories and lived experience through verses, bars and pars. AFLO. the poet (she/her) is a spoken word artist with a rhythmic flow and a voice heard all over Brighton at recent Black Lives Matter marches. Together, they bring you the heartbreaking and empowering sounds of the revolution - definitely a treat for the ears, mind and heart.