DON PARTRIDGE kicks off tonight's proceedings: proclaimed best busker in the land by a bingo caller announcer.This is a typically offbeat and unlikely entree to the LEMON JELLY experience.
Over the past few years, graphic designers Fred Deakin and Nick Franglen have consistently livened up the gig circuit with esoterically memorable stunts. And this show's no exception: even before you get near the stage, you encounter huge boiled sweets and flying saucers at the doors; a 2 way candid camera marker board for jelly head scribbles and discover everything is being filmed for the main stage to beam back to us later on.
Lemon Jelly are happy to see us, with their can't-believe-you-made-it here grins, and as usual, their penchant for playing an array of different instruments throughout the set is present and correct. The set itself is a tight, glorious affair, interlacing favourites like "Space Walk" and "Bath" songs and newer "64-95" material, but exercising restraint with farmiliar samples which only drift in subtly throughout. The beats effect a fine balance of indie left-field playfulness, while encouraging everyone to participate. Then there's the stunning light show, which looks like a massive graphic equaliser, completely overwhelming as the main men melt away to unleash this amazing visual, showing a selection of their trademark videos on the big screen.
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Brilliantly, tonight never once feels like a press and play experience either, because the breakneck unpredictability of LJ'S music - taking in everything from the Seventies smooch of "I Wanna Stay With You" and the live performance of Teri Walker, through to long-lost '80s new wave band Scars joining Nick and Fred live on stage for a fabulously loud guitar crunching rendition of "The Shouty Track" -ensures you're always gloriously wrong-footed just as you're beginning to feel comfortable with the groove.
They tease us by telling us they've "run out of songs" before finishing with a typically euphoric version of seasoned crowd favourite "Stanton Lick", but really nothing is left to chance because Lemon Jelly simply have all bases covered. They cater for old skool, hardcore Jelly fans and inquisitive new ones alike. This was like the most thrilling club night that unites indie kids and clubbers you could imagine: a 90 -minute visual and aural carnival of fun that got this most cavernous of venues up and grooving ecstatically. Ultimately,what more could possibly ask for in the name of entertainment?
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