The Aliens @ King Tut's

Bursting onto the Tut's stage in over-sized shades to the sounds of a whirring spaceship, The Beta Band were reincarnated as The Aliens before our very eyes. With two BB members - Robin Jones and John Maclean - and founding member Gordon Anderson AKA Lone Pigeon, it's easy to write them off as a spin off band. Yet The Aliens are a bit more rock n'roll than the Beta Band and (if possible) slightly more eccentric. Noticing the lack of energy from an unusually subdued audience, Anderson engages the crowd with a bit of off beat Fife banter before body popping his way through the disco-funk brilliance that is 'Robot Man'. The set ends with a boisterous rendition of the unavoidably catchy 'Happy Song' with Anderson enlisting help from his brother and fellow Fence Collective pal King Creosote. The Beta Band may be dead but the Aliens have taken their music to another level, and another planet. [Rhona Macalister]