Beards

The Glee Club, Nottingham

To beard or not to beard? That is the question. However, if you plan on attending a show where The Beards are playing…you better be prepared for a lecture about why having a beard makes you a better person in every single way imaginable.

Opening proceedings are Brad Dear, who aptly entertain a gradually swelling audience with their brand of jaunty rock. Despite hardly raising any eyebrows with their performance, the band deliver a set boasting punchy melodies and accessible sounds. Once they manage to enthuse themselves more on stage, they should manage to raise their game in no time at all.

Tonight’s main attraction offers one key element; beards. It’s raining beards at the Glee Club, as the emphatic Australian four piece emerge to a triumphant uproar, with opener ‘I Like Beards’ instantly bursting into life (complete with fist pumping). As the beards of both the band and crowd members are gracefully fondled throughout the set, The Beards manage to make the highly difficult fusion of musical and comedic genius seem so simple. Their effortless ability to entertain coincides with their oodles of talent, as front man, Johann Beardraven exhibits his stunning vocal quality, expert keyboard skills and mind blowing saxophone solos to leave us all speechless (and uncontrollably beard stroking).

When a live performance possesses such power, composure and class, it’s hard to question their one dimensional structure, as their love for beards never seems to get old, song after song. The enormous chorus of “Born with a Beard” and impossibly catchy closer “You Should Consider Having Sex With a Bearded Man” show a standard of musical comedy which rivals the likes of Tenacious D and Flight of the Concords.

If every man on earth had a beard, we would probably be worshipping this band instead of the arrogant, narcissistic divas we cling to nowadays in the charts. Quite frankly, that’s a world I’d like to live in.

Photos from the night can be found here.

Links
http://www.thebeards.com.au/
https://www.facebook.com/TheBeardsAustralia
https://www.facebook.com/braddearmusic

Words by George “growing a beard as I type” Fullerton