Scene Report – Bristol May–July 2009
By: Sian Norris
Hello everyone! Apologies for the prolonged absence, the last few months have been rather a desert of gigs, what with unemployment and being away for many weekends. So it’s time to cast your mind back readers to May, when the summer seemed to really kick off in earnest and we could walk around bare legged and bare armed, back before the rains started up again. May, when the lovely Dot to Dot festival came to Bristol, and I put on a vintage eighties dress and went to see what it was all about.
We started off at the Louisiana to see Marina and the Diamonds who then went on to cancel! Nightmare. We were tempted to stay in the Louie, but one look in the dark and hot and crowded upstairs room, and a second look at the sun drenched, blue skied harbour scene outside and my mind was made up. We left the Louie, slapped on some sun tan lotion (but not enough to avoid a burnt nose) and headed to the Ostrich to sit in the sun by the river. We were swiftly joined by Rob and Coz of Sexy Bitch, and then Friendly Fires’ Jack came to meet us. Sitting there drinking cold beer on a hot day, the river lapping next to us, and me and Jack catching up on what had happened since we last caught up – the day was just completely blissful.
[DINOSAUR PILE UP]
Having realised we had missed most of the bands we were planning to see, we reluctantly left the Ostrich to go to the Fleece and Firkin to see Dinosaur Pile Up. It was a toss up between them and Polly Scattergood, but some good old style grunge won out. Dinosaur Pile Up were energetic and loud, with a lot of Nirvana influence without ever really turning derivative. I like a bit of nostalgic grunge and although there was nothing really new here, they provided a good warm up from the dreamy peace and quiet we had been indulging in all afternoon.
[LADYHAWKE]
Eventually headed along to the Academy for what was the sweatiest and hottest and most aggro couple of hours I have ever spent in the eponymous worst music venue in Bristol. Luckily the music was fantastic. We were too late for Patrick Wolf, but just in time for the divine Ladyhawke, who is, along with Florence and the Machine, my favourite of this surge of women electro pop outfits. She sounded fantastic, I love her gravely vocals and the way her tunes are so catchy without ever being stupid or cliché. ‘Another Runaway’ sounded like Madonna’s best early records (I’m thinking ‘Dress You Up’ and ‘Borderline’), and the singles ‘Paris is Burning’ and ‘Delirium’ sent the crowd wild, singing along and dancing. I was almost hoping that she would be put on a bit more of a show, maybe some interesting visuals or a bit more movement. She tended to stay standing on one corner of the stage, I’d be interested to know whether this is standard for her performances or just this particular evening. Still, it was a great performance musically, and cemented my certainty that Ladyhawke is on her way to being huge.
[FRIENDLY FIRES]
The Academy was rammed to overflowing point and the heat was unbearable. There were a lot of drunk morons pushing and throwing their weight around, at one point almost pulling me in to a fight(!) so we went upstairs and even further away from the stage, sucking ice cubes to cool down, ready for Friendly Fires, who delivered a performance that brought tears to my eyes. They played all my favourites, ‘Strobe’, ‘Paris’, ‘On Board’, and even old favourite ‘Photobooth’ which I hadn’t heard out for a while. Accompanied by a new brass section of trumpet and sax, the sound soared and it was such an emotionally charged and electrifying performance from all four of them. All my fingers are crossed for them at the Mercury awards.
BizNiz came to Bristol for a long overdue visit, and, alongside Jay le Surgeon, took over UFO at the Dojo Lounge. BizNiz came up with a proper party Big Ting style set of old, playing all the ladies with Amerie, Beyonce, Grooverider, The Gossip and all my old favourites from days of dancing in Cosies until my feet felt they would fall off. Jay was up next, taking it a bit more leftfield with some great funk and electro influenced hip hop – I love watching Jay dj, and years of being one of the top guys in Bristol has made him a pleasure to have behind the decks. He knows exactly what tunes are going to work together, with time perfect beat matching, and he never plays two tunes that jar or don’t fit together. As he would say – lovely jubbly. Carnage and Puffin Jack and the Kelly Twins rounded up the evening.
June saw the arrival of Passion Pit, fresh from Glastonbury to the Cooler. Support was provided by We Are Tokyo, who were fun, although they told a lot of in jokes amongst themselves. I found the music quite derivative, but not in an irritating way. It was just good dancey jangly pop and I never have a problem with that. The DJ provided us with a selection of Blur’s greatest hits before Passion Pit took to the stage, for a wonderful set that took us on a musical journey through the album. I love the range of instruments and sound effects they use, the way they build up sound patterns to create something full of complex layers and yet which is at its heart just lovely fun pop songs about love life and all the good things. I couldn’t see a thing unfortunately, being overshadowed as I was by about a hundred people who were all over six foot, but I could see the lead singer’s hair poking over the crowd. I danced until I thought my legs would fall off, the whole atmosphere of the performance was one of fun and happiness, a really joyous experience.
Leaving my hip hope electro loves behind for a while I seem to have spent a great deal of the summer listening to rrrooocccckkk! with a trip to the Croft for their weekend festival on the 3rd July to see Geisha. I have to admit that my hard, heavy metal style rock knowledge is not top notch, but Geisha have improved so much since I saw them eighteen months ago, honing their sound to create a much more cohesive and unified set. It was impossibly loud, with scorching and searing guitars and drums, and throaty shouting and screaming. It was a visceral performance, as the sound built up to be almost cacophonic in it’s intensity. As Rob from Sexy Bitch summed up – “they just make it look so easy”. I was curious to see what Turbowolf are up to now Betty has gone, but was too tired to stay to see them headline. Sorry about that.
Rock was also the theme of the Nokia music party at the Thekla, with metal shouting from Ella and fun emo musings from My Friend Friday. Ella were interesting but they were so heavy it almost made me want to run and hide. The noise coming off that stage was mindblowing! My Friend Friday are, well, friendlier. They seem to be playing more and more in Bristol at the moment, with gigs at the Louie and the Thunderbolt, so one to watch out for.
Which takes us up to St Paul’s carnival, most of which I missed due to prior commitments. I did get there for the end of the Star and Garter stage to see a fabulous reggae dub band with a female vocalist who had this incredible earthy and sweet voice. Unfortunately I didn’t know their name, but they were so good, completely tight, comfortable on stage, mixing instrumental tracks with vocal tracks, a friendly MC and a real easy going, dubby sound. Kosheen were playing at Lakota (remember Kosheen??!!)and a host of drum n bass djs took over the main stage, but I was happy dancing to reggae, drinking red stripe outside the Star, thinking how lucky I am to live in Bristol and be two minutes away from such a lush event.
Not much happening in August , other than not being in Bristol much, but things to look forward to are The Hounds singer’s acoustic gig at the Thunderbolt, and then, in September, Lady Sianushka (that’s me by the way) will be making her dj debut at the Uppity Bump in London, alongside Bass Clef and BizNiz, an exciting event if ever there was one. In the mean time I will be planning my set and rediscovering how much I love Sonic Youth – what an excellent, excellent band.
Artists in this article: Dinosaur Pileup, Ladyhawke, Friendly Fires, Passion Pit