BAMBIE THUG @ CHALK, BRIGHTON, 30TH AUGUST 2024
From the outset, I must let you know this has been no ordinary gig. Bambie Thug represented Ireland in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, but don’t let that fool you into thinking their music is some kind of bubble gum confection. In fact, it’s no kind of confection at all. It sounds like a mix of pop and industrial rock, say Lady Gaga meets Nine Inch Nails. Bambie describes it as “Ouija pop”, which sounds way cooler. Bambie is a practising witch. That by no means should suggest that they’re evil, but Bambie is a great believer in karma, so it’s probably best not to cross them.
As the show (and it is very definitely a show, not a gig) begins, two shirtless male dancers take the stage wearing quite satanic-looking masks with tendrils protruding from them. Then, Bambie takes the stage and starts dancing and singing with the dancers. There is no band onstage. All of the music is on the backing track. As I said, it’s a show, not a gig. It’s not altogether easy to define this show’s aim. It does entertain, but it also seeks to educate as well, and certainly to provoke thought. The show is very slickly choreographed, but there are occasionally flavours of amateur dramatics. However, it should be noted that this is the first night of the Crown The Witch European tour. Some trickier moments will likely be tightened up as the tour progresses.
There is a throne onstage, which Bambie frequently occupies. It somehow suits them!!! Before Bambie took the stage there was a spoken word intro by them, making the whole event feel like a ritual. This is a gothic cabaret. It’s art rather than just a rock gig. The last thing needed in this show would be a guitarist at the front of the stage with his foot on the monitor, peeling off a solo. Some of the lead vocals are on the backing track, which I’m not too keen on, but lest we forget, when Kate Bush toured in 1979, she lip-synched her way through Them Heavy People, so there is a precedent.
Bambie Thug doesn’t have an album out, but they have been remarkably prolific with regard to EPs and singles. Since 2021, they’ve released three EPs and eleven singles. Of the singles, seven didn’t appear on the EPs. Indeed, the opening song, Hex So Heavy, is their latest single. This song is about betrayal and warns those considering betraying Bambie that a hex will be cast upon them should they dare to do so. The video for the single is a must-see, depicting Bambie as a shapeshifting witch who transforms into an underworld spider to punish a nymph who has stolen a magic axe. There are many references to the occult, such as I Know What You Did Last Summer. Mention must be made of Egregore, which is something of an epic and a future classic. Like many of Bambie’s songs, it’s music to get utterly lost in.
This show requires a certain degree of suspension of disbelief and surrender to what’s happening onstage. It will take you elsewhere if you allow it to. If it all sounds a bit serious and po-faced, it really isn’t. Bambie happily interacts with audience members in front of the stage. At one point, they repeatedly say, “Just take ketamine.” Possibly not the best advice that I’ve received this week!
The show is in three acts:
Act I – Welcome To The Coven
Act II: – Witches Ballad
Act III – Initiation
However, this is not obvious from the audience. Perhaps Bambie should make some kind of clear delineation between the Acts. Then again, maybe they did, and I missed it!!! At the end of the main set, Bambie and the dancers shoot the audience with water guns- so they have a sense of humour! It lightens things up after what has been a psychologically and intellectually heavy show. There is a custom that Bambie Thug very much follows: they play an encore. What else can it be other than their Eurovision entry, Doomsday Blue.
As first nights go, tonight has been successful. There may be one or two things that need to be ironed out (like ensuring that Bambie’s mic is switched on when they return from their costume change), but overall, it’s been a triumph. I’d love to see the show again towards the end of the tour. Mark Kelly
Bambie Thug Live Gallery From Chalk, Brighton 2024
All Words Mark Kelly All photos ©Cris Watkins Photography
