Congratulations, 33 Oldham Street. 3rd February 2024

It’s been a while since I visited 33 Oldham Street. More bands need to play here, or bands I like at least, it’s a great venue. A band I like are Congratulations. They weren’t originally playing here, but we’ve moved a little way up the road from the original venue and it feels like a step up to be fair.

There’s a nice little crowd in for support from Pedro Pedro Pedro who are as crazy as their name. Banging out entertainingly shambolic tunes that are pretty hard to pin down. The bloke with the guitar and no shoes looks like he’s just stepped off a beach, despite it being pretty chilly outside. I’m not really sold, but their energy is admirable.

Congratulations aren’t easy to pin down either to be honest, but they do have some impressive stagewear. I’m guessing it’s stagewear and they don’t usually wander around in matching tasseled jumpsuits in rainbow colours. They look like the Telerubbie Cowboys, maybe they do things different in Brighton. They do not sound child friendly though, fuck no. Dirty distorted bass, gigantic guitars and a fabulous amount of fun. A change of pace from the post punk present, they’re more agit funk pop, but honestly they feel like they’re just doing what comes naturally and it sounds and looks bloody brilliant. There’s synchronised dancing with the singer in green and the lad in blue on guitar who looks like a young Prince, whilst the lad in red kicks out some beautifully thick sludgy bass. All held together by the yellow one who looks genuinely delighted to be on drums. They take the energy from the support and dial up to eleventy stupid. “Alright this is a funky one” Blue says, as if they’ve not all been. Fuck me this is funky and fucking brutal though, the bsss is like Justice, the vocals like Beth Ditto. For 45 minutes they grab us by the neck and throw us around in a swarm of ecstasy. They finish with ‘Zeitgeist’, which if you’ve not yet heard them, is maybe where you should start. They are utterly brilliant.