A step into the unknown is always a good for challenging preconceptions and getting BM out of her musical comfort zone. There are a million revivalist acts, tribute acts and ‘playing that classic album’ shows out there, many of which are dull, worthy and expensive – many musicians using it for their pension pot, not their fault but…sometimes that just isn’t enough…
So four acts unknown (to BM, turns out many people do know them as the gig was at capacity of 250, so well played David Blair/23 Universe) playing a venue previously unknown as well, the space formerly known as 69 Below (missus!). The venue has a decent stage and sound system and for a nightclub the bar prices were not ridiculous.
BM did not catch all of The Rain Experiment but what she did catch was melodic, a bit Beatlesy and sounded pretty good. Similarly BM did not see all of The Lightning Trip but again promising stuff, original material and some good licks and vocals – and the crowd was enthusiastic for both.
Cat Caldwell performed just with an acoustic guitar and her voice, battling quite a noisy crowd (not hostile, just chattery, a Friday night crowd) but she did a very good job, with several pretty memorable self-penned tracks along with a rather lovely cover of Nirvana’s ‘Come As You Are’. She has a few tracks up on Spotify (I think she played one of them tonight in her 5 or 6 song set) which sound very good as well, and BM thinks she could go pretty far in the right circumstances, her breathy vocals and guitar playing could be a pretty winning combination.
John Rush, the headliner, is gathering some momentum and BM can see why on the evidence of this performance. Songs drawn mainly from his most recent release ‘Beneath The Apple Tree’, are played solo on a twanging acoustic guitar. For quite a young guy he has a lot of presence and the whole vibe is (can BM really nail this?) early Dylan (the guitar and chords) jamming with Nutini and Cinnamon’s bastard son (the voice) with a dash of Capaldi to finish things off….
The best tracks of the 12 or 13 or so tonight were for BM ‘The Wallflower’ (some great ‘It’s All Over Now Baby Blue’ couplets) and ‘The Bitterest Pill’, although BM would have to say that the full band version of ‘The Wallflower’ eclipses all these, and personally think Rush should just hire a band next time and blast it out – the tracks have the quality, and the staying power…