The Haunt: Monday, April 15 2013
It’s a sad state of affairs when most of the hype around this gig centred on whether Macaulay Caulkin – whose only claim to fame since Home Alone appears to be escaping unscathed from Michael Jackson’s bed – would again join Green and Shapiro on stage.
He finally appeared for the climax – a chaotic cover of the Beach Boy’s Kokomo – which judging by the number of camera phones that were whipped out was probably the highlight for two thirds of those here. Which was a shame, because the NY (him) and LA (her) duo don’t really need cheap or wacky stunts to attract attention – they’ve already got enough quirks and quality to stand out from the crowd.
The set was interspersed with several of Green’s anarchic solo offerings, allowing him to ditch his acoustic guitar and unleash his hyped-up Cocker-esque moves, complete with flailing limbs, cheeky shimmies and hand gestures like a deranged puppeteer – but the undoubted highlights were when they combined to perform songs from their first collective, self-titled, release.
The dual vocals on the classical 60s pop noir of the likes of Pity Love and Just To Make Me Feel Good were perfectly complimentary – with his deeper burr a perfect foil to her winsome peaks – while their toing and froing on Casanova would make a fine soundtrack to a deliberately hammy prom night movie.
Just keep Caulkin out of the camera shot, though, or it would probably end up going straight to DVD.
brighton gig blog 