Saturday night and the Amanda Palmer party came to town. Despite the call of the beach on one of the sunniest days of the year, the packed crowd had turned out early for the support acts – most of whom were comprised of members of Palmer’s band, The Grand Theft Orchestra.

First up was the beautiful looped uke-and-string sound of her bassist, Jherek Bischoff. Then the energy started to rise with the dirty disco sound of guitarist Chad Raines in his other guise as The Simple Pleasure. Introductions were then completed with a two-song set from Brighton’s own Bitter Ruin, the stunning vocal talent of Georgia Train wrapping up the mood of Les Misérables in a spirited rock-opera style.

Then Amanda Palmer came on, promising not to repeat the nude performance of her song for the Daily Mail which has made the night before’s London gig an instant legend. Launching into one of the standout tracks from her latest album ‘Do It With A Rock Star’, the set started with Amanda and band giving it 110%. A stunning song, a little reminiscent of Robbie Williams’ ‘Let Me Entertain You’ (in spirit, at least), it works as a call to arms for Palmer and makes that immediate link with her audience for which she is famed, including stage diving into the crowd. And this was song number one.

Thereafter we were treated to up-tempo band songs; slower ballads; intimate songs including one about AIDS; personal stories and chat; some ukulele songs (she’s released a whole album of uke-based Radiohead covers); then a song by her former band, The Dresden Dolls, for which she brought back Georgia Train to share vocal duties. We also got a couple of indie covers including The Smiths’ ‘Please Please Please’ and Pulp’s ‘Common People’, the latter getting an amazing response.

We heard about the London gig, her trip to Seven Sisters earlier in the day and various other tales, including the beautiful political statement of her song ‘Gaga, Palmer, Madonna’ (about being a successful female in the music business). For one song, she donned a jacket and then leapt into the audience to float over our heads carried along on arms and shoulders with an enormous train following in her wake. Perhaps expected by her diehard fans, it was an amazing sight.

She ended the gig with her ‘Ukulele Anthem’, a rather beautiful tribute to the humble uke, which ends up being a series of lessons in how to live your life and may well go down as one of her finest achievements. It’s warm, endearing, heroic and enthralling in equal measure. A great end to a great gig.

Except it didn’t end there. After most of the audience had left the building Amanda kept her promise and played a small intimate set of encores on the pebbles of Brighton beach. She certainly courts controversy but Palmer’s passion is genuine and her fierce independence has become an inspiration to many. Of course, it’s only rock ‘n’ roll – but Amanda Palmer proves that music can have depth and meaning and still be hot sweaty fun.

Concorde2, Saturday 13th July 2013
Words and photos by Jon Southcoasting