George Glen

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I’m such a big fan of Emiliana, even drove to Brighton to see her last tour, so I was intrigued by this collaboration with The Colorist Orchestra so just had to travel to London to see for myself. The set is all Emiliana songs, only one new one, but re-arranged with The Colorist’s strange collection of instruments and odd sensibility. It could all go horribly wrong, and sometimes the new arrangements and rhythms were a bit hard to warm to. But in general the result was a fresh interpretation of some of my favourite songs, and of course with Emiliana singing we all had that familiar warm feeling that comes from her delicate and emotional delivery of great songs. 

Setlist : Colorist instrumental, Caterpillar, Serenade, When We Dance (new song), Birds, Nightfall (Kid Koala collaboration), Animal Games, Blood Red, Thinking Out Loud, Tookah, Speed of Dark, Today Has Been Ok, Jungle Drum, Encores; Colorist Instrumental, Gun, Bleeders, Slow

8/11 Attended by George

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I was seduced into coming along mainly by Charlie’s beautiful classical style guitar playing and his intelligent songs. That was exactly what we got but maybe I wasn’t in the right mood since I wasn’t wowed. Seemed to be nice guitar intros to what for me were not that memorable songs. But that could just be me on the night, so will definitely give him another chance in future.

6.5/11 Attended by George

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Big Thief from Brooklyn are not normally my style, but not too far away and I’m glad I give them a listen. Sensitive Americana with soft indie rock backing is the vehicle for the songs of Adrienne Lencker who is the band’s main focus apart from cool guitar contributions from Buck Meek. Much appreciated by a packed Mash House.

7/11 Attended by George & Andy A

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One of the last chances to see a good band at Electric Circus before it closes down, and Boxed In, led by Oli Bayston from London had recorded an intriguing set for KEXP while ago. Their more recent music is a bit more electronic, even disco like, but it still went down well with a busy Electric Circus. I preferred their older songs, maybe just familiarity, but I enjoyed the set overall. Guid !

7.5/11 Attended by George

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Wow! I don’t usually enjoy ‘moshing’, but with such a glorious noise and a fantastically enthusiastic, but unusually considerate moshpit, it would have been rude not to! Barely managed to stay on my feet for the whole duration of a brilliant set from a band I’d been waiting to see for quite a while.

I struggle to describe Girl Band from Dublin but someone called it ‘avant-garde noise turbulence’ and that is better than I can do (see videos below, you can see me and Andy in the clip from Summerhall!).  No riffs here. No traditonal musical guitar, bass, drum playing or singing here, all are used to make extreme effects laden noises which are layered up to make something like music.  A pretty unique and special sound. Tremendous dynamics too, with the band building and dropping the intensity of the songs matching up to a crescendo of audience moshing. Smashing!

9/11 Attended by George & Andy

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Surprising to find out that it’s only 2 years since Sneaky Pete’s hosted Chris Duncan playing only his 3rd ever gig. He has come a long way and two critically acclaimed albums since, so he said he was delighted to come back as part of Independent Venue Week to play and thank some of those who helped him along.

A set mainly comprised of songs from his recent album ‘The Midnight Sun’ with a few earlier favourites of mine including ‘Say’ and ‘Architect’ from his Mercury nominated first album. Words like ‘smooth’ and ‘soothing’ obviously describe the melodic and normally gentle style of his songs, but there’s a lot of craft in the arrangements from his super tight band and the singing with 3 and 4 part harmonies is gorgeous. Much appreciated by a packed house but with enthusiasm rather that any unseemly rowdiness. Pity … I do prefer something a bit more rowdy to stir the blood, so though I like the style and delivery it’s music to admire more than to get excited about. Nice!

7/11 Attended by George