The Flamingods take to the stage with an extended squelchy chord intro that turns into a tabla beat before ‘Born Lucky’ rolls in like a modern day version of ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’. It is a gentle start that helps the crowd limber up as the euphoric global sound fills the room.
By track two, the more urgent ‘Adana’ the shapes are unquestionably coming out. The diverse crowd is all here for fun. Somehow the song takes an eighties turn tonight, with the keyboards hitting a Yazoo flavour towards the end.
“It’s great to open the tour in Brighton. It’s our second favourite city” exclaims Kamal before getting drawn into a discussion on the merits of getting the hell out of London and moving to Brighton.
Marigold, from 2019’s ‘Levitation’; ups the ante. Kamal’s guitar adds some much needed grit and edge. It’s a killer track.
Kamal then grabs a Turkish Saz for the next tune. Kamal is of Turkish and Bahraini heritage, and has faced lots of complications over the years. He was forced to return to Bahrain during the early years of the bands career. The good news is that his permanent right to remain in the UK actually arrived during soundcheck for the tonight’s show.
“While this was happening there was one thing I could not do. Go on the marches. This one is for the people of Palestine. This one is for the Jews who say not in my name.”
‘Gutterball’ follows. lt is the second true banger of the night. He plays the traditional Saz like it was made by fender before using a snake charmer’s flute to invoke a Stooges style skronky sax solo.
One of the pleasures of watching Flamingods has always been how talented all the members of the band are. They have always swapped and changed gear throughout the shows, with ridiculous ease and fluidity. Indeed Charles, Sam and Karthik are all capable of playing every instrument, on the stage like it was their main instrument. If it wasn’t so much fun; it would probably be a bit sickening.
During the instrument change we make a discovery: Electro Harmonix, makers of the world famous Big Muff fuzz pedal have made a sitar pedal. Sam is even kind enough to give SOURCE a full demonstration after the show. A bit of reverb and the Bass guitar turns into a full one man explosion of Spiritualised style goodness. It’s just one of the little details that contribute to this unique sound. It could also be the start of a new ebay bargain hunting pedal obsession.
Yes SOURCE wants to spend its dirty money on a new pedal, a fittingly enough ‘Dirty Money’ follows. It turns out that is also a great tune. The play if heavy tonight and the audience goes into full headbang mode! We breezily transition from hard rocking to hip sashay as ‘Tall Glass’ which follows is sassy as hell.
Kamal then tells us that ‘Head of Pomegranate’ is actually the English translation and consequently named after the Bahraini village; Ras Rumman, where his father lived.
‘Dreams (on the Strip)’ the opening track from the album, then hits its full disco stride.
During the last track ‘Volta Rocket’ Kamal is now dancing so wildly that his glasses go flying, landing somewhere in the drum kit. A fitting sign of a band letting go and having fun.
Patterns, Tuesday 19th March 2024
Words by Nick McAllister
Photos by Stan O’Shea
