By the time they take to the stage, the crowd has amassed to a mix of friends and curious pub-goers, and in keeping with the ramshackle homey spirit of the evening (and due to the severe lack of stage) several members of the band are almost amongst them as they start playing. The Great Indoors are a kind of folk-rock collective- the lead singer and guitarist Brendon O'Sullivan writes the songs but ropes in members of various other Brighton bands (like Waxed Apple) to play with him, which adds a welcome eclecticism. For example, 'Working Overtime' is a yearning country-fied strum-along that's given a truly authentic home-on-the-range twang by multi-instrumentalist Alex Forster's barn-house violin, while 'Southern Cross's acoustic calm is rendered even more poignant by the delicate xylophone flourishes. Prior to this song, the amiable Brendon politely asks the chattier pockets of the crowd to "shut the fuck up", but you're glad he did as it'd be a shame for anyone to miss even a note of tonight's performance.

The Indoors finish with their best song (the first track on their demo) 'Herbert and George'- Brendon helpfully explains that it's about two brothers who fall out with each other, one of whom eventually dies with the other not finding out for eighteen months. Given the grim subject matter, the song has a surprisingly warm, optimistic air and an instantly memorable chorus although the line "something happened, we stopped sending letters" takes on a slightly chillier tone considering the story behind it.

Despite organising the whole gig themselves the Great Indoors triumphantly leave the stage at nine thirty (having won over the now fairly pissed crowd) making way for another local outfit, the mysterious La Momo. If this was, as the décor suggests, a house party then La Momo would be the cool but slightly scary looking guests in the corner that no one knows who invited.

Their music is a thrilling blend of Velvets drone-rock, complete with pulverising bass, white synth noise, and ultra-minimalist drums played occasionally by the Patti Smith-esque front woman when she isn't abusing a guitar or unsettling the front row with her twitchy weirdness and permanent face-obscuring fringe. La Momo's sound couldn't be more different to the host bands, but their relentless hypnotic psych-pop goes down just as well as a counterpoint to the Indoors' bewitching homespun folk. Their blistering set ends with a ten minute noise freak-out and the crowd lap it up.

Before their set the Great Indoors' Brendon told me that they'd organised this DIY gig as there are "five hundred bands in Brighton" and it's difficult to get a noticed but on tonight's evidence if only fifty of those bands are as inspiring as these two, then it can't be that bad.

Review by Ian Viggars
moshimachine.com/momo/momo
www.greatindoorstheband.com

500 bands? How many of them are as good as this? Talk on the Messageboard