British Sea Power – 100 Club, London 03/04/13

Trust British Sea Power not to do things by the book. Whilst most album parties are rather predictable affairs – chattering journos congregating around a free bar whilst the band nonchalantly rattles through their new material – the great eccentrics of UK indie-rock pulled out all the stops to ensure the launch of Machineries of Joy was an experience worthy of their oddball reputation.

Before we’d even arrived at the 100 Club, the evening had featured mad Scotch punk poets holding court about Central London watering holes, a pub quiz on a Thames riverboat, and Bulgarian choirs singing the traditional Eastern European folk ballad ‘The Wheels On The Bus Go Round And Round.’ The pre-gig entertainment once we got there was no less esoteric: communist ping-pong and a raffle with prizes including an air raid siren and a plastic horse reposing in a Pyrex measuring jug all being present. At one point three blonde ladies, clad in togas and laurel leaf headbands ventured on stage and threw a variety of shapes for no apparent reason. All very peculiar.

Yet this imaginative and engaging frippery paled in comparison to the near-flawless set unleashed by the hosts themselves. From the subtle majesty of the title track, through the taut, no-nonsense rock assault of ‘K-Hole’, all the way to the gorgeous, smartphone-waving waltz of ‘What You Need The Most’, the new material finely complimented the many old favourites featured tonight.

The storming pop-punk riot of ‘Apologies To Insect Life’ was given a further adrenaline boost courtesy of the fantastic Jehnny Beth (Savages), the anthemic bombast of ‘No Lucifer’ and ‘Waving Flags’ lent themselves particularly well to a room full of reverential fans, and the closing one-two knockout of ‘Carrion’ and ‘All In It’, complete with marauding polar bear, perfectly encapsulated their weird, but wonderful mix of great songwriting and a quintessentially British sense of humour.

It’d be remiss of me not to mention Bo Ningen’s subsequent brief, but scintillating onslaught of ear-melting psychedelica, a tie-dyed cherry on an already delicious cake, but tonight, not even these long-haired paragons of maximum rockness could outclass British Sea Power at the top of their game.