Art Brut

If you thought Art Brut were has-beens, you might just be right. But here's the thing: if there's one person who knew it first, it's sharp-as-a-whip frontman Eddie Argos. With that in mind, Argos made the band's short, snappy set utterly hilarious and exhilarating, continually changing lyrics to their classic songs to better suit their current milieu. After launching straight into "Formed a Band" (in which he hilariously advised the crowd to start a band "seven years ago"), Argos threw himself headfirst into an updated version of "My Little Brother," who now "no longer listens to B-sides," Argos quipped, because "no one does. He sends me YouTube clips. He's 29 now. He's a teacher." It might have been depressing were Argos not so damn good at self-parody to begin with. The true testament to his showmanship, however, came halfway through the show, when Argos successfully got most of the Mod Club crowd to crouch down with him while he told a hypothetical story about winning a bet with an art curator that he could get an audience to crouch down with him. Yes, Art Brut's eight-song set was composed almost entirely of songs from their 2006 debut Bang Bang Rock & Roll, but you know what? It's a classic. Eddie Argos knows it, and so should you.