Live – VLURE | MEMES at The Green Door Store Brighton

VLURE & MEMES at The Green Door Store, Brighton, 27th November 2021

Back in the days before a certain pandemic took over our lives, VLURE shared the visual for their track Desire, an insight into what was to come from the Glasgow five piece. I watched it repeatedly, weirdly fascinated by its almost tribal ferocity. Fast forward to Saturday night at Brighton’s Green Door Store and it’s time to find out whether the same urgency is still brimming over.

First up though, the powerhouse that is MEMES warm things up on the coldest night of the year. There may be only two of them (three if you count the drumming laptop) but what they lack in numbers they make up in volume and spiky socially observant lyrics. Talking Heads meets early Young Knives turned up to eleven if you will, in a good way for avoidance of doubt. Well worth a watch if they’re passing your way.

And so after much anticipation, VLURE hit the stage and any idea that they wouldn’t live up to expectations is instantly quashed. With a breathtakingly solid collection of songs now under their belt, there are no dips in the set. The pulsating wall of 80s electronica fronted with a visceral vocal that makes up Shattered Faith is a standout that has the venue shaking, the actual storm outside overshadowed by the manufactured one inside.

Intense, immense, and the most welcome of antidotes to the past eighteen months, VLURE are everything you’d want them to be and more. Just a glance at everyone’s faces in the crowd shows the pure joy in the room. There were stacks of gigs on in Brighton to choose from on Saturday, I can only thank the powers that be that we had the foresight to be at this one.