burning up the Home Fires in the Conway Hall
I was going to write a proper review of Home Fires IV, but I have several posts waiting to be finished, and if we wait for them to be finished, they never will be, so here are some bite-sized reviews of the bands I saw. If you want to know more, I'd suggest following the links and checking out the music yourselves (apologies in advance for linking to MySpace):
- Adjagas are a Norwegian band with a swelling dreampop sound that's reminiscent of acts like Sigur Ros. Listening to them was a pretty good cure for a bad hangover (not surprising, as their name is a Sami word which describes the state between sleeping and wakefulness), as their music enveloped me in a warm cocoon of pretty noise. Definitely a band I'll see again
- Emmy The Great is a singer-songwriter who has some funny lyrics but is unfortunately a bit too po-faced in performance, which detracts a bit from the humour, and her vocal delivery occasionally reminded me a little too much of Ani di Franco. It was pleasant enough, and I'm sure she'll be a huge hit with college girls, but I won't be rushing to see her again.
- Barbarossa's James Mathe has a haunting voice, and it was no surprise that the hall rapidly filled up when he was on stage, but his performance was nothing spectacularly memorable as I can remember nothing else to say about him at this point. This is clearly an indication that I need to see him again.
- St Vincent has basically taken all the good bits of Scout Niblett and Regina Spektor, and combined them into her own thing. Which is good. She is going to be doomed by lazy music writers with the "kooky" epithet, which is less good because she is more interesting than that -- although having listened to her tracks on MySpace, I have to say that her live performances are better, so I would definitely want to see her again.
- Fionn Regan played The Underwood Typewriter, which was all I could have asked for, as it's one of my favourite songs. The rest of his performance veered between plaintive singing away from the microphone and folk-rocking out with the accompaniment of a drummer and a double-bass. (I'm thinking of going to see him again at the Bella Union anniversary gig at the newly revamped RFH if anyone's interested...)
- Home Fires curator, Adem put on an expectedly endearing performance, full of works in progress and musical experimentation. Every single song was performed with a different instrument, including a ukulele, a beautifully-painted harmonium, and rubbing two violin bows simultaneously across the edges of xylophone keys (which produces an incredibly haunting sound). His lyrics are the equivalent of autobiographical mini comics, really, which is to say that they fall into the realm of the kind of confessional stories which people either painfully relate to or reject for being too sad/pathetic/honest. Me, I like 'em. Interestingly, and perhaps unfortunately, I preferred all his live versions to any of the recordings I have heard (especially the acoustic version of Everything You Need), so I'll settle for spending money on seeing him perform again, instead of buying the albums.
- When Nina Nastasia came on stage, she announced that, "as you get older, everything scares you more," or words to that effect, and I wanted to hug her. Not just as reassurance that it's not so bad, but because sometimes that's just how I feel. (I wish I could feel as invincible as I did in my early twenties.) She never played my favourite song (That's All There Is) but she did play some good stuff and her voice is lovely. Another to see again, next time she reaches these shores.