Chimpomatic

The Broken Family Band

La Boite, Madrid

A good live show has to offer something more than simply loud renditions of familiar tunes. This could take the form of plenty of long haired extended jams, a la MMJ, or perhaps some audience participation and a nice line in dark humour. The Broken Family Band fall comfortably into the latter. Onstage just before midnight in this cosy Madrid venue (which turned into an incredibly camp disco afterwards) singer Steven Adams is a funny guy ('funny how? You know, the way he tells a story') as anyone familiar with their albums will no doubt already know. They played about an hour and a half of their particular brand of twisted country music (via Cambridge) taking in Banjo solos, Acapella singing and good solid rocking out along the way, as well as banter and jokes in-between songs (and the songs themselves) including some sort of explicit mobile message played over the mic. A highlight being Alone in the Makeout Room with part time banjo player and beer-getter Tom/Ben(?) filling in the role of the female, whilst Adams added some rather rude lyrics definitely not on the album. Great tunes, good lads. "It's a Hit" say the critics!