Scene Report: Bristol February 2009
By: Sian Norris
With the sun shining and the scent of spring certainly in the air (I truly believe you can smell the onset of spring) it is time to cast my mind over the dwindling winter evenings to remember the gigs and outings that occurred over February.
After celebrating Valentine's Day in style - breakfast at Sufis and steak for dinner - I headed out on Sunday to catch the Bristol date of the NME Tour, featuring Florence and the Machine, White Lies, Friendly Fires and Glasvegas. The Academy (formerly Carling, now O2) lived up to its reputation of being a venue of no great ability, resulting in having to stand on the corner of a balcony on tip toes to get a view of anything whatsoever, but was worth the pain for getting a taster of the NME reader choice, and of course, seeing my old friends Friendly Fires.
[FLORENCE AND THE MACHINE]
First on the bill was Florence and the Machine, who I was intrigued to see after her extensive coverage on the radio at work. It took me a while to get in to her voice, which definitely grew on me, so I was curious to see how she would appear live, whether the power in her voice would match the hype.
She was fantastic, a thoroughly exciting performer to watch. A fire cracker of energy, she bounded around the stage barefoot, rolling on the floor and letting out an almost primeval yell into the mic, she was a singer who forced you to sit up and take notice. With shades of PJ Harvey and Cat Power, I think Florence will really develop this into her own sound as she matures, with what is already an incredible vocal range. I think she should be expecting a big future, so long as she continues to develop and build on the talent she has to really push her boundaries and continue to experiment.
White Lies came next, and even their mics looked from the eighties, so much so that it would be a sin to not compare them to Depeche Mode. That said, I enjoyed their set, very sparse electro with deep voiced vocals - s'no wonder they're doing well.
Next on the bill were Friendly Fires, wonderful to see as ever. Florence joined them on stage for dancing to 'On Board' and Edd got the audience clapping, before creating a cacophony of mashed up sounds on 'Ex Lover'. New single 'Skeleton Boy' sounded fabulous, but couldn't surpass my all time favourite 'Strobe'. Even though these songs came after my time at university, listening to them that night took me right back to parties at Manly House, watching Friends with Jack whilst hungover and complaining about the incidental music, dj-ing and dancing at house raves and, well... it was just a real moment of wonderful memories that made the gig feel so special.
I didn't stay for Glasvegas as quite frankly I really don't like 'em.
Black Lips have been making a lot of noise of late, and having established that they were not the Black Kids or the Black Keys, I thoroughly enjoyed an evening of jangly rock and fun time indie. One to keep an eye on.
[EIRLYS RHIANNON]
Bristol Reclaim the Night march ended an evening of campaigning with music from acoustic singer songwriter Eirlys Rhiannon and then dj-ing from the team behind Lipstick on Your Collar. Eirlys is truly blessed with a wonderful voice, moving from ethereal to earthy, as her lyrics explore a whole range of subjects. Sometimes accompanying herself on the guitar and sometimes singing accapella, she has a powerful presence, and is oen of the best on the Bristol folk scene. They also cooked up some tasty food fare at Café Kino!
Lipstick on Your Collar run monthly club nights at the Hatchet, playing exclusively female fronted bands and women vocalists, and volunteered to play the Reclaim the Night march after party. Tunes as diverse as 'The Locomotion' by Kylie, The Gossip, Le Tigre, Shakira, Dolly Parton, the Pipettes, the Ronettes, the Shirelles, Beyonce, kicking off with Carly Simon - it was a night for dancing and celebration, after a truly fantastic march with samba band thrown in for good measure.
Shrove Tuesday arrived with a meal of savoury pancakes and a trip to the Thekla to see Sexy Bitch, Absent Elk and Das Pop. Since the departure of Sarah Jane, Sexy Bitch has seen some new faces join the band, with Coz on keyboards and JP formerly of Countryside on tambourine. The songs sounded great, 'Nigeria' and 'It's our Pornography' growing into each other at the end of the set. It was nice to see some additional faces on the stage, everyone looking like they're having a great time, singing and playing along, bringing real warmth to the performance.
[DAS POP]
Das Pop has been championed by Justice and Soul Wax so it was a shame that not many people came out to see them play. They were totally joyous Belgian pop, Kraftwerk haircuts and lumberjack shirt in place for the lead singer. Pitch perfect guitar indie pop songs, with drums and keyboard thrown in for good measure, even the sad songs singed happy. It even reminded me a little of the the Undertones, although I am not sure why. Rather a faux pas it was mistaking us for Brighton which left the audience rather resentful, but a fair mistake I thought, 'Br', sea nearby, lots of small gig venues...Respect to the band member with the bushy beard and the denim dungarees too.
[EMMY THE GREAT]
Braving the Fleece and Firkin for the second time, I headed to see Emmy the Great, who first captured my attention with her song of messy relationships 'Almost Had a Baby'.
I love a bit of good folk music and she delivers, but takes it further by singing about all the things that many women want to say, but keep quiet about. 'Almost Had a Baby' is a case in point, rather like in the song 'Killing Me Softly', I almost feel like she's talking directly to me, telling a whole bunch of secrets. Lines like "I am a space to out your hands on" are so truthful, so blatantly honest, that it comes as a shock when heard in such a lovely lilting voice and strumming guitar.
The sound engineer made a pretty major error by cutting the mic in 'Almost had a Baby', which was annoying, but Emmy did a wonderful cover of the sixties classic 'The End of the World', totally capturing longing and despair in the medium of a gently lulling girly pop song, which not only made up for it, but kinda summed the whole thing up, really.
The month ended with a trip to London and the Uppity Bump. Not a busy crowd, but helluva lot of good tunes, Jay Le Surgeon bringing a whole pile of rare seventies funk 7"s, including a marvellous track called 'Butter My Popcorn'. Bass Clef pulled out a fab remix of the Flaming Lips' 'The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song', and Biz Niz formally Nza da Baron played a set that felt that it was almost written for me, 'Catch Me' by Stone Riddims (a desert island disc if ever there was), 'Pull Shapes' by The Pipettes, 'Love Me or Leave Me' by Nina Simone, 'Burning Up by Madonna'... I danced like I was never going to stop.
Next month is all a bit open really...but one thing I can promise is an interview with the one, the only, the legends that are...Boys And Dance.
Until then!