overlap

Unexciting though it may be for those people who are following the link back here from The School's myspace page (and thanks, it's nice to be quoted), I've just spent more than an hour in my old car. Which tomorrow will make its final journey in my care, on its way to the scrapyard. At a couple of months shy of twenty years old, and with more than 110,000 miles on the clock, it's done its fair share of work over its lifetime, and especially in my charge, which makes for well over a third of those miles. There's a tiny part of me that's aware that the departure of a car my late father once drove is the end of one of the few remaining things that still link us, but that's no good reason to keep a vehicle on the road that is a very long way past its best, and pretty much past its serviceable too. Nevertheless, time moves on, and with a little bit of help from the bank, tomorrow I shall also be heading home in my new car, which is barely half the age of the one that's going. I happily subscribe to the view that it's only a car, but after a couple of years of every time I leave the car being punctuated by removing the right fuse to make sure the battery doesn't get flattened in my absence, moving on to something a tiny bit more modern certainly has its appeal. The nature of life is change, and this is just another step, but it's the sort of change that doesn't come along very often. And for that alone, it's vaguely worth mentioning.

It's been a very long time since I paid only £3 to get in to a gig. Obviously it helps to be watching a band who aren't big news, but if there's any justice in the world, this lot will be soon. At the end of yet another horribly wet day, as has been so typical this summer, I wasn't that desperate to go anywhere, but having missed two gigs the previous nights in favour of making just this one, I forced myself out, and lived to be rather glad I did. Zissou, support band number one, were rather interesting in a not quite fully formed but threatening development way. I'm listening to their myspace now to remind myself what reference points they hit. There's a hint of Jonn Penney's vocal styling, and there was a bit of Half Man, Half Biscuit in the occasional jerkiness of the music and a bit of Jim Noir's pop quirkiness, but whatever comparison they'd like, they impressed me enough that I'd make sure I got there to see them if I heard they were supporting somewhere else. The Ash & The Oak had me stroking my chin in exactly the manner that deserves derision and scorn. Partly because I couldn't work them out, and partly because I couldn't work out whether I was bothered. Rachel, who alternated between bass, melodica, baby glockenspiel and a couple of other things had a marvellous dress, accessorised with red belt and shoes, and was hard not to watch despite being sat down. The electric guitar (and sometimes bass) player was unobtrusive enough, and the drummer did what he needed, but the singer came across as the weak link. In a soundcheck-free, bass-heavy, live performance environment, the lead vocal needs a bit of strength, and delicate, keening vocals just get lost in the sound. Even that you could get away with with a bit of stage presence, or communication with the crowd, but it just wasn't happening for me. See if I'm being overly harsh here. Three bands at a quid a crack is nevertheless great vfm, but The School are more than worth the price of admission on their own, having got me rather excited when I first found their myspace from someone else's guidance on facebook. Despite their relative proximity, I'd never have come across them otherwise. Sure, I'm a sucker for a female vocal (except Sh*rl**n Spit***), and without Liz Hunt's dynamic vocals the band would have no focal point. The occasional clunky keyboard phrase (try the intro to Valentine) adds to the vaguely shambling charm, and All I Wanna Do brings to mind Kirsty MacColl's 'They Don't Know', which is exalted company as far as I'm concerned. In contrast to the preceding band, taking my eyes off Liz is difficult, and when I can it's because I never realised from listening to the myspace tracks how well the fiddle lines fit the songs. Indeed I'd barely recognised the presence of a fiddle, and the combination of two female musicians also brings to mind Aberfeldy, another band making simply beautiful, classically structured, girl meets boy pop music with singalong tunes, and with more to offer than the basic guitar/bass/drums combination. Fabulous. * "And Suddenly The World Is Full Of Sunshine" is the first line of the Left Banke song And Suddenly, as covered by The School, and I can't think of a single sentence that sums up their sound any better than that.

Labels: gigs, Liz Hunt, The Ash + The Oak, The School, Zissou

Nearly missed this one, but a chance check on the website meant I only knew this gig was on just over a week before it happened. New venue to me, apparently been running since around the turn of the year, but I've had no reason to pay attention to it before. So there's a small concern when the venue website specifies that parking is limited, and local knowledge suggests that getting to the recommended road for parking will take some doing, so I allowed plenty of time, and ended up about the seventh person through the door. Eventually Jason turned up, the room got a bit fuller and by the end a good thirty or maybe even forty people were watching. I mentioned seeing Jason and the Scorchers earlier this year, but the intimacy of Jason's solo shows is a level above that. What we got was two hours split by a brief interval for Jason to sell and sign CDs and t-shirts, and take requests for songs to do in the second half of the show. He signed the CD I bought and the sleeve for another that I'd brought with me, and said he thought that particular Scorchers show was as good a show as the Scorchers have ever played. I'm reminded of a conversation I had recently about someone meeting a musician whose work he admired, and finding his liking being somewhat tarnished by the guy in question being at best disinterested. Some people can turn it on because being vaguely friendly is a part of the job, but Jason is not just a true pro, he's also a thoroughly decent, friendly chap who'll chat as long as you want because he likes that rather than because it's part of the job. Jason's diversion into music for children is heavily hinted at by this, his cover of Roger Miller's England Swings, so it's a good guide to what you'll get if you go and see him. Nothing staggeringly new, except this time I got some decent video and will put a couple more tracks on youtube when I get a chance, but full value for money and some good honest Tennessee humour and warmth. And you really can't ask for much more than that. * "Running down the highway, running down the line" is from Farmer Jason's 'Punk Rock Skunk', from his second album for children of all ages!

Labels: gigs, Jason and the Scorchers, Jason Ringenberg

Free gigs are bit of a lottery at the best of times. Free gigs in the outdoors in a summer characterised by floods and the sort of weekly rainfall to quench entire deserts are even more so. I went off earlyish in the afternon to make sure I caught some of Beth Rowley. A ten minute run through Nobody's Fault But Mine is perhaps not the snappiest way to make plenty of momentum in the early part of a set, but it does showcase her voice well. I stayed through Little Dreamer, and headed off during So Sublime - that's the other thing about city centre free gigs, the draw of the shops! With a shopping bag full of stuff I headed back to dump it in the car and go back over to the gig, but before I got to the car, it started raining again. And rained, and rained some more, so I took the easy option of going home while the next couple of bands were on, to pick up a better coat and some essential supplies... Where the gig and fairground area was enclosed by railings and awash with hi-vis clad stewards, part of their function was to prevent people smuggling in alcohol. Given alcohol of many kinds was on sale, it seemed rather a pointless exercise in any case. I found a suitable spot to stand just before Glasvegas came on, and despite the horrific name they were the one band I'd have gone in to see regardless. Ever since I heard It's My Own Cheating Heart That Makes Me Cry, I've been mesmerised by its rolling dynamism, so I was hoping to be blown away but prepared for disappointment. They only did thirty minutes of a slated fifty minute set, and maybe that one song obliterates everything else, because it ended up being a tiny bit flat when it could have been greater, but I'll try and catch them doing their own show soon. Young Knives are the sort of band I'd be really pleased to find a bullied child of mine grew up to be in. They evoke that kind of classroom outsider image, obviously knowingly, but I particularly like their humour and the fact they seem to be having their own little world of fun on stage where the audience are invited too, as opposed to just beating the audience into submission. Turn Tail is the song that's still in my mind. The rain mostly held off, giving us a light sprinkling for a few minutes now and then, but that brings us back to the particular source of loveliness I'd brought in with me through the hi-vis cordon. Plenty of people were furtively swigging booze from hip flasks and other receptacles, but there's very little better to do in early August than watch a band perform in light rain while pulling your coat a little tighter and sipping hot chocolate from the flask in your pocket. Rock n roll crazee, oh yes! I last saw Ash a few years ago, and I tend to think of them as a great singles band. Burn Baby Burn is a corker, Girl From Mars the crowd-pleaser towards the end of the set, and Oh Yeah, Shining Light, Kung Fu and some other stuff I don't know pop up in between. Worth the seeing, but I'm probably not inclined to travel a long way to see them again soon. My best action picture of Tim Wheeler of Ash - not bad from the distance. More, inevitably... * Angel Interceptor is probably my favourite Ash song, and they didn't play it. Bah!

Labels: Ash, Beth Rowley, gigs, Glasvegas, Young Knives