On his debut LP, singer-songwriter Sean Bryant, writing under the moniker Big Brutus, traces a relationship from its hopeful rise to its dark and messy dissolution. Tiny Box is a candid examination of love, fear, faith, and anxiety and the cataclysms that are caused when those emotions collide. The Slang guitarist describes it as a kind of “spring cleaning” album, the idea being that cataclysms are sometimes necessary to wash away the past in order to make way for the promises of the future.
Sequentially, “The Drunk” is a centerpiece of the LP, one of the emotional pivot points where the dreams of love and hope alluded to in the early portions of the record start to break away and fall apart. While the live acoustic version captured here lacks the sweeping elegance of the original, there is a raw intimacy to Bryant’s performance that feels naked and vulnerable.
Filmed in Grant Park by the Wander Project, “The Drunk” is the first of three live Big Brutus videos that will be released. It takes a fairly conservative visual approach, eschewing multiple cuts and angles for a single languid take that drifts in and out of focus. That it never feels tedious or redundant is a testament to the quality of the performance, and also to the editing, which coats everything in a dreamy haze. Check it out above.
Bryant is working on his sophomore LP, The Odd Willow, which will be released in late 2016 or early 2017.
Big Brutus will perform on Thursday, August 18 at Ponce City Market. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Admission is FREE.
More Info
Bandcamp: bigbrutusband.bandcamp.com
Facebook: @bigbrutustheband
SoundCloud: @bigbrutusband