Trades Club is one of those venues that I'm determined to get to, one day. They have some stonking good bands on.
I'm slacking here, aren't I? Catch up time....
So, there was the utterly sublime Krystle Warren. I'd liked her in London the previous Friday, but the York gig was a whole other level. I even quite liked Gwyneth Herbert supporting, solo this time, who had left me pretty cold the Friday before - in York I still didn't particularly like her songs but I enjoyed her performance of them a lot more. Maybe 30 people in the audience; when KW came out she unplugged the guitar, stepped off the stage, apologised to the sound guy for wasting his hard work at the sound check and did the entire set acoustic with a sense of engagement and urgency and intimacy that the Purcell Rooms didn't come even close to. The 3 part harmony audience participation wasn't as impressive but worked and made everyone smile - and huge kudos goes to the one solitary soprano in the audience who carried that part single-handed but assuredly. And I got to talk to the woman herself after, and my two new friends who shared my table (turns out I taught one of their daughters) nicked a poster and asked her to sign it for me. I still don't have the words to do the show justice. One of my favourite gigs ever.
Then last week at the Basement, promoted by our favourite Joe from PPY, Laetitia Sadier. Blurb described her as french and feminist, so I figured that'd do for me
I was subsequently informed that she used to play with a well known beat combo of some repute but tbh I've never heard of Stereolab so that meant nowt to me.
- First support - some name to do with sunsets, turned out to be some dreary chap with a guitar apologising for being a bit crap. Meh. I resisted the temptation to be excessively rude about him because you can pretty much guarantee at the basement that you'll be overheard by someone who turns out to be a FriendOrRelative of the talent. But, yeah. Meh.
- Second support - Alisia Casper, who I've seen before supporting someone else. I liked her a lot last time. Less so this time - she was poorly apparently. Stonking voice, but the songs did nowt for me and forgetting the words didn't help. Quality banter at times, and the beetroot joke halfway through an otherwise terribly sombre track made me laugh. Mildly disappointed that she didn't meet the expectations created from her previous set.
- Then the headliner. I liked her, actually quite a lot. I'm not sure if it was partly the effect of being the thirs 'person with guitar' in a three act line up but I felt the lack of any additional instrumentation. I liked the voice, I liked the songs, and I found her quietly engaging but I wanted more sounds somehow. Stupendous accent mind, and excellent taste in stripey tops.
Then for Friday, with a Nikki and a Kim expected to arrive at the Den having ridden their bikes A Long Way to get there, I had discovered that local band Bull were headlining somewhere. My Mate Soph (the punk fan who is raising her kids to appreciate Proper Music too) has been trying to get me to a Bull gig for months and describes them as 'surprisingly good for a bunch of teenagers'. Plus someone in the band is the big brother of the kid who has been her daughter's best mate since nursery
So I dragged the cycle-tourists out to experience the delights of Fibbers. Apart from anything else, one of the support acts was the Lungs. How could I not take Kim to that?
So, first up was The Epilogues. I think I've seen one of them before, and described him as looking like Harry Potter's younger fresher faced little brother. We didn't get down to Fibbers til after their set though as we prioritise curry eating over listening to all the supports so we walked in as The Lungs, next on the billing, were doing their last couple of tracks. Sounded OK from what I heard. We found My Mate Soph and her husband and her teen son who was playing it very cool at his first 'real' gig. And spotted MrCharly and Mrs MrCharly
Next came the Littlemores, who I've seen and liked before. Unfortunately the vocals were pretty inaudible although a proper York accent was definitely present which I approved of heartily. I was kind of hoping it was going to be one of those gigs where the sound check was optimised for the headliners and a bit tough luck on the supports but then Bull started and it didn't sound any better. I thought they were pretty good though and, like the Littlemores, are undoubtedly better than the crappy sound and the excessively noisy talking audience made them appear. I'll certainly keep an eye out for their upcoming gigs. But not at Fibbers which, I've decided, is clearly not the venue for me.
Now, what's going to be next....
