Late Of The Pier

It’s a strange malaise, this one. If you give a young man a keyboard, why does he want to turn into Pennie Automatic? The number of Pennie impersonators swells daily, all of them trying – and failing – to take over the crown of indie’s favourite manic munchkin.

LOTP have their own imitator in Red Dog Consuela. He’s possibly the least impressive of the lot, appearing to have little actual musical ability above and beyond being able to fire off samples at the correct moment, but his manic dancing has a joy all of it’s own, a Bez for the modern generation.

Except that he is more than just that. He’s a very important part of this band’s sound. Without him, this would be a very ordinary band. With him, they become something special. Weird noises filter through a sound which is at the gentle, almost poppy, end of indie rave. Singer/guitarist Samuel Dust at plays a piece of wooden fencing on the brilliantly named single “The Bears Are Coming” – a song which also features a sound so insane, it can only be the noise of Sweep having an orgasm. That moment alone makes this one of my favourite shows of the weekend.