I saw a blind man, he was eating his fork
Phew. It's been a busy December. In fact, I'm not entirely sure where it's gone. In gigs, some of it.
Some of the gigs are so long ago that I've pretty much forgotten what happened. I also forgot this gig was coming up, at the time, and didn't even know the Water Rats was open as a venue again. Do I sound disorganised? Good. You've got the right impression.
The (small) room was pretty empty for support act Pre-Sleep Monologue. I remember I thought they were enjoyable, but not quite enough to buy a CD - I intended to download their album instead, but don't appear to have done. (This is a measure of my commitment to a band these days: not will I buy their output, but will I give it housespace.)
The room filled up before The Frank & Walters came on. Almost all blokes, almost all in the 40+ age bracket. Friendly, beered-up, chatting to each other, and prone to sporadic outbreaks of singing "We are, we are, we are we are we are the Frank & Waaaaaalters".
Which, of course, they weren't. However, four blokes turned up on stage who are. The Frankenwalters first really hit my radar with their late-career, third-album single Something Happened To Me. ChrisC reckons that it should really be all about their first album. What we had attended was a 20-year anniversary play through of their second album (got that wrong, then).
However, some gigs can be made by their crowds and this one had enthusiasm in spades (slightly too many, slightly drunken spades in the case of one gentleman who was eventually escorted - still dancing - from the building by security). The Frankenwalters are not a folk band, but their songs have that sort of folkesque structure that means you can sing along by the second chorus even if you don't know them.
If they come by your town, and you're not massively averse to 90s-esque guitar bands, give 'em a listen. Try it: After All
We're slightly latecomers to the idea of Grace Petrie, as she's been slogging up and down the country for years. However, having seen her win over an entire engine shed of people-who-were-there-because-it-was-raining-outside at Indietracks, we bought tickets to see her at the lovely, local venue of Bush Hall.
In fact, what we saw was part of the Lefty Christmas tour, and Bush Hall constituted her biggest (to date) headline gig. Robin Ince (describing himself as the token middle aged straight white man) compered the show and did a few poems to kick things off. He always gives the impression of being a genuinely likeable chap and, although he was very self-deprecating about his poems, they were fun and lightweight.
Jess Morgan played gentle, self-written songs to a guitar accompaniment to (what I imagine was) a gratifyingly silent Bush Hall. People were mostly sitting on the floor, but all shut up to listen. She even broke out a harmonica at one stage - and was self-deprecating about it - and proved a very strong support.
Top support - slightly out of kilter with everything else - was local-ish band Colour Me Wednesday. They're filed in my head as "band from Indietracks world" not "folk-inclined lefty world", so I was a bit surprised to see them on the bill. They're female-fronted (all female, in fact), and do melodic, easy-to-sing-along-to pop.
Their set, in the event, was drawn almost entirely from their not-out-yet album, so was almost all new to me. I like Colour Me Wednesday, they're fun, and they look like they're having fun.Try it (rather old video): Purge Your Inner Tory.
Grace Petrie was - according to a quote used on her own website - described by a reviewer as "so worthy I almost choked on my falafel burger". I find that most surprising. She is - by her own admission - very left wing and some (but by no means all) of her songs reflect that. However, she is also very funny, very much not above sending herself up, and has the most infectious smile I've ever seen. I really don't understand how anyone could dismiss her as overly worthy. Also, she's got some cracking tunes and some great chorus songs. Again, like any decent folksinger, you can pick up her choruses by the second time through.
Highly recommended - especially if you're fans of, say, Billy Bragg. Possibly don't take your kids, as she's very sweary. (Having said that, Robin Ince did fondly describe watching her mentally rewrite her lyrics on the fly at a festival where she'd realised the audience was very child-centric, and where her setlist included an awful lot of lyrics where the rhyme-word was 'fuck').
Try it (not very sweary, not political): Ivy
I was principally at the Lexington for the support act, Tigercats. I was advertising them recently as a sort of low-rent Los Campesinos!, and I stand by that. Again, they had a new-and-not-out-yet-album-heavy set (disappointingly, they'd crossed one of my favourites, Weezer off the set list).
They remain endearing, and great fun live. The main singer seems to have made it his personal mission to rehabilitate the thumb piano as a proper instrument. I wish they'd play more gigs not in the depths of East London.
The Wave Pictures (who, by their own pronunciation, are apparently The Wave Pictures, not - as I've been calling them - The Wave Pictures) are exactly the sort of band I don't expect to like much. Blues-oriented, long (long!) guitar solos and extended periods of improv.
However, I've been quite won over by them at several gigs this year. They also have a wonderfully endearing stage presence. And they kicked off with the philosophically batshit Strange Fruit for David, which I've never heard live before and made for a silly audience singalong. And they do gentle songs, and good ol' stompers, and jangly dancealongs.
Try it: Spaghetti (which has earwormed me for the past week, you have been warned).
Probably just as well Dinosaur Jr. cancelled their show, really.
Oh, and I saw NMA at the Forum, too. But you've all heard me waffle on about them before, and right now the mother is requiring assistance making pigs in blankets.
[Originally posted at https://venta.dreamwidth.org/533403.html]
Some of the gigs are so long ago that I've pretty much forgotten what happened. I also forgot this gig was coming up, at the time, and didn't even know the Water Rats was open as a venue again. Do I sound disorganised? Good. You've got the right impression.
The (small) room was pretty empty for support act Pre-Sleep Monologue. I remember I thought they were enjoyable, but not quite enough to buy a CD - I intended to download their album instead, but don't appear to have done. (This is a measure of my commitment to a band these days: not will I buy their output, but will I give it housespace.)
The room filled up before The Frank & Walters came on. Almost all blokes, almost all in the 40+ age bracket. Friendly, beered-up, chatting to each other, and prone to sporadic outbreaks of singing "We are, we are, we are we are we are the Frank & Waaaaaalters".
Which, of course, they weren't. However, four blokes turned up on stage who are. The Frankenwalters first really hit my radar with their late-career, third-album single Something Happened To Me. ChrisC reckons that it should really be all about their first album. What we had attended was a 20-year anniversary play through of their second album (got that wrong, then).
However, some gigs can be made by their crowds and this one had enthusiasm in spades (slightly too many, slightly drunken spades in the case of one gentleman who was eventually escorted - still dancing - from the building by security). The Frankenwalters are not a folk band, but their songs have that sort of folkesque structure that means you can sing along by the second chorus even if you don't know them.
If they come by your town, and you're not massively averse to 90s-esque guitar bands, give 'em a listen. Try it: After All
We're slightly latecomers to the idea of Grace Petrie, as she's been slogging up and down the country for years. However, having seen her win over an entire engine shed of people-who-were-there-because-it-was-raining-outside at Indietracks, we bought tickets to see her at the lovely, local venue of Bush Hall.
In fact, what we saw was part of the Lefty Christmas tour, and Bush Hall constituted her biggest (to date) headline gig. Robin Ince (describing himself as the token middle aged straight white man) compered the show and did a few poems to kick things off. He always gives the impression of being a genuinely likeable chap and, although he was very self-deprecating about his poems, they were fun and lightweight.
Jess Morgan played gentle, self-written songs to a guitar accompaniment to (what I imagine was) a gratifyingly silent Bush Hall. People were mostly sitting on the floor, but all shut up to listen. She even broke out a harmonica at one stage - and was self-deprecating about it - and proved a very strong support.
Top support - slightly out of kilter with everything else - was local-ish band Colour Me Wednesday. They're filed in my head as "band from Indietracks world" not "folk-inclined lefty world", so I was a bit surprised to see them on the bill. They're female-fronted (all female, in fact), and do melodic, easy-to-sing-along-to pop.
Their set, in the event, was drawn almost entirely from their not-out-yet album, so was almost all new to me. I like Colour Me Wednesday, they're fun, and they look like they're having fun.Try it (rather old video): Purge Your Inner Tory.
Grace Petrie was - according to a quote used on her own website - described by a reviewer as "so worthy I almost choked on my falafel burger". I find that most surprising. She is - by her own admission - very left wing and some (but by no means all) of her songs reflect that. However, she is also very funny, very much not above sending herself up, and has the most infectious smile I've ever seen. I really don't understand how anyone could dismiss her as overly worthy. Also, she's got some cracking tunes and some great chorus songs. Again, like any decent folksinger, you can pick up her choruses by the second time through.
Highly recommended - especially if you're fans of, say, Billy Bragg. Possibly don't take your kids, as she's very sweary. (Having said that, Robin Ince did fondly describe watching her mentally rewrite her lyrics on the fly at a festival where she'd realised the audience was very child-centric, and where her setlist included an awful lot of lyrics where the rhyme-word was 'fuck').
Try it (not very sweary, not political): Ivy
I was principally at the Lexington for the support act, Tigercats. I was advertising them recently as a sort of low-rent Los Campesinos!, and I stand by that. Again, they had a new-and-not-out-yet-album-heavy set (disappointingly, they'd crossed one of my favourites, Weezer off the set list).
They remain endearing, and great fun live. The main singer seems to have made it his personal mission to rehabilitate the thumb piano as a proper instrument. I wish they'd play more gigs not in the depths of East London.
The Wave Pictures (who, by their own pronunciation, are apparently The Wave Pictures, not - as I've been calling them - The Wave Pictures) are exactly the sort of band I don't expect to like much. Blues-oriented, long (long!) guitar solos and extended periods of improv.
However, I've been quite won over by them at several gigs this year. They also have a wonderfully endearing stage presence. And they kicked off with the philosophically batshit Strange Fruit for David, which I've never heard live before and made for a silly audience singalong. And they do gentle songs, and good ol' stompers, and jangly dancealongs.
Try it: Spaghetti (which has earwormed me for the past week, you have been warned).
Probably just as well Dinosaur Jr. cancelled their show, really.
Oh, and I saw NMA at the Forum, too. But you've all heard me waffle on about them before, and right now the mother is requiring assistance making pigs in blankets.
[Originally posted at https://venta.dreamwidth.org/533403.html]