Lancaster’s finest husband and wife, punk-pop duo The Lovely Eggs are back in town for the first time since they were one of the first big proper post-Covid local gigs back in August 2021, and it’s the first night of the second part of their tour in support of this May’s album release, Eggsistentialism.
We first witnessed them many, many moons ago, back at such missed venues as the Magnet and Lomax, which was just after the release of their debut album, unbelievably all the way back in 2009. Since then the heart has been very much warmed seeing them get more and more popular with each of their album releases, whilst still doing everything very much on their own terms. And it’s good to see an actual decent-sized Liverpool crowd turn out on an autumnal Friday night.
Holly and David enter the Arts Club loft stage and are treated as returning heroes as they kick off with their latest single ‘Death Grip Kids‘, a song about them fighting with the local council over keeping open a local community space, hence “we don’t want your foyer, your stupid f***ing foyer”.
“Good evening Liverpool, we haven’t been here for ages.” They are keen to make tonight’s gig an event rather than “us just playing for you and you staring at us because you’ve paid money”, but Liverpool crowds being as they are, they most they get during epic recent release ‘Nothing/Everything’ is a bit of shuffling and head-bobbing.
Tonight’s set-list showcases the great versatility of their sound, from the gong-starting wonky psychedelia of ‘Wiggy Giggy‘ and the all-out thrash of ‘Still Second Rate’, the two of them perfectly in sync with drums and guitar. But it’s not all pure noise, a stunning ‘I Am Gaia’ showing their more serious side, “When you tell the crowd you’re broken, and they clap for more…I am hurting, I am wanting, I am singing, I am broken.”
They explain to the crowd that they’ve spent the week making guitar cases out of cardboard, as well as packing 7-inch singles into envelopes at their own home and taking them to the Post Office. They really are the definition of a DIY band. They have no record label, no booking agent and no manager, but this doesn’t stop them being such a musical force for good, all of which gets rapturous applause before an impassioned ‘F*** It’.
But the Eggs are not happy.
Holly lets loose her inner Chrissie Hynde by complaining about the front row, saying that they are looking like “a row of corpses” by not moving enough for them and tells us that we need to Feng Shui ourselves as a crowd, with her inviting the rowdier members to get down the front. This brings an instant response, and it suddenly feels like a different gig. There’s chants of “we love you Eggs we do, oh Eggs we love you” as the mood lifts, reaching a crescendo for the welcome return (after only including it intermittently over the last few years) of their best known single, ‘Don’t Look At Me (I Don’t Like It)’.
But, unusually, it’s the newer songs that are the best on offer tonight, showing a growth with each release. It’s wrong to say that they are in any way ‘maturing’, they are just simply getting better. They end with a rousing ‘Dickhead’ and a glorious ‘Meeting Friends At Night’ and a splendid hour has flown by.
After 15 years, they shouldn’t have to beg for an atmosphere, (come on people of Liverpool, stop thinking you are too cool for school), especially as they are such masters of their art, never second-rate, always Lovely.
(Photo: Cheryl Doherty).
