MY BABY fills Brighton’s Komedia with dancing, energy and joy
The band rounded off their UK leg of the Echo tour in one of Brighton’s most intimate venues.
Photo: Daisy Bourgoin
Kicking off the UK Echo tour in Leeds, MY BABY have played their new album across a number of venues — the final stop being Brighton’s own Komedia. Shobsy opened for the band, warming up the crowd with his energetic rendition of Bronski Beat’s Smalltown Boy. Even a fire alarm evacuation mid-set didn’t faze him — he was the perfect support for a band like MY BABY, and soon the crowd, who were once standing still, were jumping around and all set for the headliners themselves.
MY BABY were met with a huge round of applause as they took to the stage, jumping straight into Shameless, a song with a catchy guitar riff lying right at the heart of it. Daniel Johnston (guitar) really proved his incredible skills to the audience, playing riffs at an incredible speed, and encapsulating every single person in such an intimate venue. Sunroof Diesel Blues shortly followed, maintaining that upbeat and funk-driven tune, and in the band’s third song of the set, we heard the first song from their newest record — Echo. The title track of the album is by far my favourite song from MY BABY, and the live rendition definitely didn’t disappoint. If everybody wasn’t dancing before, they were now. Cato van Dijck’s vocals particularly stood out to me, as she was able to reach such high notes with such ease!
Less Is More and Ain’t No Turnin’ Back were two other tracks taken from the new record, which, when performed live, definitely gave a more danceable and funky feeling than they did on the studio album itself — this worked perfectly for the audience, who didn’t even have time to catch their breath before being launched into another dance-filled track: Juno Moneta.
Agree 2 Disagree followed, with lots of the crowd (including myself) picking up the words from such a catchy chorus and shouting them back. Crowd interaction was quite a big part of the gig, with Joost Van Dijck (drums), challenging the audience to see who could dance the fastest. MY BABY played at an incredible speed, and each time you thought that they couldn’t get even faster, they somehow did. Even the crowd ended up struggling to keep up their dancing with the sheer tempo of the band. Remedy II (another track from their back catalogue), and R U 4 Real (from latest album Echo) kept up the steady pace of songs perfect for dancing to, and Seeing Red translated into a more rave-inspired track, as my friend and I ended up jumping up and down to the steady drum beat.
it’s a setup and Take it as a Warning rounded off the set. After the latter track had barely finished, the crowd already began shouting “We want more!” — and that’s exactly what they got. The encore consisted of three songs, equally as danceable as all of the tracks before it, and by this point, I think it’s safe to say the venue was incredibly hot, but the crowd didn’t seem to care, giving the same energy for MY BABY at the end of their set as they did at the very beginning. Smiley Virus was a particular standout, and you could almost feel the joy emitting from the venue as the chorus rang out through the Komedia.
MY BABY’s set gave off such a happy and energetic feel that it was impossible not to become immersed in these funk-filled tracks, and I’d definitely love the band to release some more live albums, so that everyone could relive the amazing feeling of being able to see them perform right in front of you.