Fell City Girl @ The Zodiac
Phil McMinn / Fell City Girl
Just got back from having seen Fell City Girl at the Zodiac. Met up with wetsleeve (who graciously gave me a lift there and back - thanks Polly) plus her niece Helen and friend Lynne (neither of whom I'd met before and both were lovely).
First band on were This Town Needs Guns - I didn't think I'd seen them before but now that I think about it I'm pretty sure they were one of the supports when I saw Dive Dive at the Wheatsheaf. That was only a month ago, why I didn't remember this sooner I don't know. Stupid memory. Anyway, they didn't really hit me tonight, but to be fair we did arrive halfway through their set, and combined with the buying-of-drinks and chatting-to-people they never really stood a chance. They certainly weren't bad though, I just wasn't able to give them a fair hearing this time.
Gerard Starkie was next up - one bloke and his acoustic guitar. Helen and Lynne seemed quite taken by him but he seemed a bit generic and instantly-forgettable to me. There was something about his voice that bothered me a bit as well, although I can't really put my finger on what it was.
The last of the three supports was The Half Rabbits, who I don't think I've seen before but that could be my memory failing. I've heard some of their songs though and I was expecting them to be good, and they were. 'Playing With Fireworks' (streamable on their myspace page) is my favourite of theirs, it's got a simple catchy lyric and that invariably works on me. Their drummer was really good, in fact I'd go so far as to say she's probably the best drummer I've seen in Oxford in recent times. Polly was impressed as well, so it wasn't just me.
Fell City Girl were, as usual, awesome. The crowd were well into it as well, which the band (especially Phil) really seemed to feed on. A couple of times during 'Weaker Light' Phil didn't even have to bother singing the chorus since the audience were doing it for him - it's nice to go to a local gig where so many people know the words, but I guess it's a sign of how popular the band has grown. They played three new songs, none of which I remember the titles to (the first title I've completely forgotten, the second was something to do with America, and the third doesn't have a title yet so I can be let off for that one). Unfortunately there was no sign of 'Send In The Angels' which is a bit odd considering it's on their new EP out on Monday, but most of the other songs were played including 'These Are The Heart Attacks', 'Rudolph Valentino' and a particularly good rendition of 'February Snow' (which they really need to get around to recording). The gig wasn't sold out in advance like the last one, probably at least partly down to the fact that it's the day after the Punt and I expect a good half of Oxford's gig-going population were still nursing hangovers, but it seemed pretty packed and I think it was probably sold out on the door so all's well in the end.
Good gig, good performance... just a shame it seemed to go by so quickly. Fell City Girl are playing at Truck Festival as well though (which will be the sixth time I'll have seen them) so there's more where this came from.