Socialising With Dead Comedians

Saturday 24th April: It's an old venue under a new name tonight. I'm fairly sure that the last time I saw a band in this room, the building was called The Bay Horse. I was still at school and was watching a band from Bradford called Haze. That was twenty-plus years ago. Now it's Stereo and we're here for a very similar line-up to that of a gig Roj and I attended last year.

The only difference is tonight's opener. Robert Loxley Hughes was the flamboyant frontman of Idle Jack And The Big Sleep who have, we found out tonight, split up. Tonight it was just him and his (well, somebody else's) guitar, some bad experiences and the resulting songs. Hughes seems to be a bit of a tortured soul who takes his experiences, chews them up and spits them out as lyrics. One song, very emotionally performed, was about an absent friend. Another was introduced as having its roots in a long story which boiled down to "very nasty lady" (tidied up for a family audience). The guitar playing varied from minimal to as close to thrash as you can probably get with an acoustic. The lyrics were mostly clear, except for a couple of times when the emotions got the better of Hughes, who has a strong voice. This was a very good performance bit it veered just too much towards angry for my liking. However, how many times are you going to go to a gig and hear a song with the word "hypothalamus" in the lyrics? The set was worth watching just for that - although, it has to be said that this was a David Ward Maclean song.

The last time we saw Dave Woodcock And The Dead Comedians, there was just the two of them performing (Dave himself and Chris Saunders on guitar) and both Roj and I commented that we would like to hear what the full band sounded like. Tonight we got that pleasure, as Chris Murphy (piano), Andrew Wood (drums) and Lee Bradley (bass) were all on stage. We were treated to songs from last year's album release, Omaha High Low, as well as new ones from a forthcoming album. Songs about gambling and love, drenched in alcohol and wreathed in cigarette smoke (metaphorically, obviously, this was in indoor gig...) The music is a sort of mix of rock and roll and country, with a lovely steel guitar sound and the couple of songs that I remembered from the last gig had, quite obviously, a fuller sound. It was an energetic performance, with Dave gesticulating and dancing round the limited stage area. Indeed, at one point, he actually took the microphone into the audience and ended up singing while on his back. In another "rare song" event, the band played one song about Dave's hometown - my guess is that there can't be many more songs about Rotherham than there are about the hypothalamus... Anyway, I'm happy to report that the full band is a whole lot more enjoyable than the cut down version we saw previously. So much so that I bought myself a copy of Omaha High Low.

Regular readers will know that I'm a big fan of GT Turbo (a.k.a Boss Caine) and tonight saw another solo performance of songs from the album The Ship That Sailed. GT wore his annoyance on his chest (and back), with a T-shirt proclaiming "Shut the f*ck up, the band are playing". Sadly the message didn't get across to all members of the audience and, even after moving away from the group doing their best to define themselves as "loud and annoying", we could still hear them over parts of the performance. GT's set was comprised of what I assume to be his current standards, including my favourite Leaving Victoria and close second (though not on the album), Smoking In My Back Yard. Like Hughes, GT's songs are based on his experiences, not all of which are good. Unlike Hughes, there is a lot less anger on show. I've mentioned before that his songs have an immediate effect on me and I was able to sing along (silently, for the most part) to most of them. There's not too much more I can add, except to say that, somehow, GT's voice, which is usually superb, seemed a lot stronger tonight. I'm assuming that was something to do with the acoustics or the mixing.

As good as the previous acts were, we were mainly here for one reason - Hope & Social's return to York. They are one of our favourite bands and are currently promoting their second album, April, which is available from the above link, using their usual "pay what you want/can afford" method. Honestly, try it - you can download it for free (if you really can't afford to pay anything), they are a totally inoffensive, very talented band and I can't think of any reason not to like them. What's the worst that can happen? Right, plug over.

Tonight, the band, with very new drummer "he doesn't know half the songs" Ian, and new bassist James Hamilton and a three piece brass section, all of them resplendent in the now obligatory blue blazers. The stage looked very crowded and I was beginning to fear for the safety of both the audience and band members given how little space there was for both the trombone and Simon's guitar-playing. Thankfully, by the end of the night, there were no injuries and the brass section quickly mastered getting off and on stage quickly.

You don't see Hope & Social perform, you immerse yourselves in the performance. Whether it's singing the chorus to Red Red Rose, laughing at Rich and Simon's jokes and antics, performing the backing to Looking For Answers, engaging in banter or (and this is a new one to me) being part of the kazoo orchestra, you are a part of the gig. Tonight was no exception. As well as songs from the new album, we heard some from Architects Of This Church, including a proper acoustic version of Looking For Answers which seemed to be brought forward in the set to give Rich some time to sort out his pedal problems. As usual, some of the songs as performed live are quite a bit different than as recorded, with some very heavy extended musical sections, but they work just as well in both versions. The added brass also provided a new dimension to some of the songs, especially when they remembered to play... I don't think it's possible to see a bad gig from Hope & Social, but I do know that tonight's was the best I've seen so far.

Reasoning With The Dream-weaver

Thursday 22nd April: I sometimes feel that I'm running out of things to say about the bands I see. Especially bands that I see (or have seen) reasonably regularly. If I like them, I'm unlikely to change my opinion. (And, let's face it, if I don't like them, I'm unlikely to see them regularly.) Also, regular acts aren't going to change their line-ups, or even their set lists too dramatically, so there isn't really going to be that much new that I can say. The likes of, "xxx were superb" or "another cracking performance" will begin to sound repetitive and, perhaps, gushy and aren't going to win me any awards for creative writing. There are times, however, when I don't care.

Tonight, I thought that I'd struggle to come up with anything new to say about Morpheus Rising. They are certainly one of my favourite local bands (I think I've said that before) and that would be the fourth time I've seen them perform in just over a year. The relatively short sets (on all but one occasion, I have seen them as support acts) mean that they have managed to stay reasonably fresh by mixing the sets up slightly. While I was expecting to enjoy the performance tonight, I didn't realise by how much.

I don't know what it was - maybe I found a rare sweet spot for sound in Fibbers, maybe it was my proximity to the stage which gave me a clearer view of the ease and sheer enjoyment with which the band play. It might even have been a growing familiarity with the songs, which meant I could relax a bit more while listening. Whatever it was, tonight was easily the best performance I have seen from them. Graeme's vocals were as clear as I've ever heard them, Pete and Daymo's guitar-playing was simply fantastic with some previously (to me, anyway) hidden harmonies becoming apparent, and Andy and Gibbo's rhythms pounded me across the chest.

Even better was the fact that the much-anticipated new material finally put in an appearance. Just two songs, In The End and set-ender Hold On (possibly a brave move ending on a new song, but it worked) but they were very welcome and just as good as the more familiar material. The new songs and the fact that my personal favourite, Those Who Watch, made it back into the set after being missing last time around, gave tonight's performance an added "Wow!" factor. Given that most of the audience would have been here for the headline act, I suspect Morpheus Rising picked up some new fans tonight, and deservedly so. Sadly, I think this will be the last time I see the band this year and there is, that I know of, no word on the proposed album. Still, it gives me something to look forward to...

At the back end of last year, when I first heard that Morpheus Rising were to be supporting The Reasoning tonight, I had heard of the headliners, but that was about it. I knew that they were part of the loose "family" of bands surrounding Mostly Autumn and that they had supported Fish in York in 2008 but that was it. I hadn't heard any of their output but I knew that there was a good chance that I'd like it and definitely wanted to take the opportunity to see them live. Then they had a website sale and I managed to pick up both their albums very cheaply. Once they hand arrived and I'd had a chance to listen to them, there was no doubt that I would be attending tonight's gig.

There have been line-up changes since the second album, Dark Angel, was released and the latest, Adverse Camber (which they are currently touring) was recorded and the latter is as different from the former as that one was from the debut, Awakening. Not radically different, but enough to show a progression. The Reasoning have a darker edge than some of the "related" bands and can be a little heavier musically, which is counterpointed nicely by Rachel Cohen's lovely voice.

Tonight's set was made up of songs from all three albums. Indeed, it opened with Awakening - first track from the first album - a track which shows the difference between Rachel's almost delicate vocals and Dylan's incredibly powerful voice. There was a couple of times when the sound wavered slightly but, for the most part, this was another incredible performance. Very tight playing which produced an almost solid wall of music. Unfortunately, Fibbers' smallish stage looked a little crowded and new keyboard player Tony Turrell was relegated to a satanic brooding presence at the back, while I could barely see Jake on the drums at all (although you could certainly hear him and what a star he was!) The other new member, the red-haired firecracker Maria Owen, seemed to own the stage from the middle, dancing as though her life depended on it, playing acoustic guitar (which, being honest, I could barely make out) and producing some incredibly powerful and clear backing vocals.

The set wasn't all dark and heavy. Two acoustic songs - (from memory, but I might be wrong) Chasing Rainbows and Dark Angel - showed a nice variety and provided a welcome lull from the more energetic numbers. Rachel is a near-perfect front-woman, engaging well with the audience (a lot of whom seemed to be regulars) and the whole band seemed to enjoy performing (which, I assume is half the battle...)

With a set weighing in at around an hour and a half, and an encore which started with Owain Roberts playing Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here before morphing into another track from Adverse Camber, this was as good a performance as I expected it to be, if not better.

Tonight's two acts bands might, on paper, not immediately fit together - one heavy metal, one prog rock. Indeed with many of the other current crop of prog bands it might not have worked as well as it did, but with The Reasoning's darker side, it was a better fit than you might have expected. The combination and the performances meant that this is easily my favourite gig of the year so far and it's going to take something very special to beat it.

CD Review: Boss Caine - The Ship That Sailed

Tuesday 20th April: There are few guitar-playing singer-songwriters that I feel the need to see perform live again after seeing them for the first time. Nor are there many whose songs instantly burrow into my subconscious after hearing them just once. Daniel Lucas/GT Turbo is one of the few, certainly in recent times, and I can't help but wish that his gigs and my free time lined up a bit better. On that basis, I didn't hesitate to pre-order The Ship That Sailed, debut album from Boss Caine, the York-based music collective formed around Daniel's songs.

Apparently, the songs on the album were all written over the last few years - this is no "let's write an album" endeavour - during which both the bright lights of London tempted him down South and the lure of his hometown saw him return. And, it seems, those bright lights may have led to more dark times than was to be expected. Indeed, the jauntiness of opener Keep The Homefires Burning belies the sombre mood of the rest of the album which is filled with sad and touching lyrics.

It's not all darkness and depression. The lightness returns, albeit less evidently during Sha La La and there is a degree of hope that love can endure in Santiago. But Daniel draws on lost loves and painful times to produce some memorable and, while sad, never depressing songs. The highs and lows of of his times in London are evident in my personal favourite, Leaving Victoria (which has nothing to do with a woman) and the city also provides backdrops for Cambden Town (a song which goes to a truly dark place when referencing vodka and sleeping pills) and, briefly, Small World. The pain of a relationship that never seems to end is evident in Never Really Gone, while a similar sentiment comes immediately after in Man Overboard.

Sing For Your Sins, the longest song on the album at over seven minutes, also has the fullest sound, with the most obvious percussion and electric guitars. The lyrics for this one paint a picture of a relationship gone sour but not yet ended, while the music builds to a stunning crescendo before falling away to a beautiful ending. One of my few criticisms of the album is that, perhaps, this song outstays its welcome a little lyrically, with the chorus repeated too many times towards the end for my liking. Having said that, it's another of my favourites.

For such an outwardly simple album, it turns out to be incredibly multi-layered, in more ways than one. While I have focused on Daniel's writing talents (and have yet to mention his rich, deep singing voice) the album wouldn't be the same without Boss Caine core members (and producers) Andy Gaines and Sam Forrest and the many guests, all of whom have played in the "band" at some time. I would particularly like to draw attention to Hayley Hutchinson's ethereal backing vocals during This Is Your Life and Rebecca Lowman's cello, which adds a great deal of depth to the sound of Bring Back My Baby.

More evidence of multi-layering (although, I admit, this may only be in my own interpretation) comes with the title track - obstensibly about Daniel's desire but inability to visit Nashville, and how he builds a boat with sails made from "all the letters you sent me". The more I hear it, the more I think the boat is a metaphor for something and the rain which blurs the letters are actually the tears cried while reading them. Maybe it's me reading too much into it.

Fourteen songs, the first of a projected three albums and, while not the style I would normally buy, an beautifully crafted album that keeps finding its way back into my CD player. Powerful, raw, emotional, simple (and, paradoxically, complex), superb and highly recommended.

Track Listing:

1: Keep The Homefires Burning

2: Bring Back My Baby

3: Dreamer

4: Never Really Gone

5: Mon Overboard

6: Cambden Town

7: Sing For Your Sins

8: Sweet Sorrow Surrender

9: Santiago

10: This Is Your Life

11: Sha La La

12: The Ship That Sailed

13: Leaving Victoria

14: Small World

Musicians:

Daniel Lucas - Vocals, guitars

Sam Forrest - Bass, percussion, harmonica, piano, vocals

Andy Gaines - Guitar, banjo, piano, mandolin, accordion, percussion, vocals

Guests:

Mike Newsham - Mandolin, guitar

Adam Rogowski - Guitars

Rebecca Lowman - Cello

Hayley Hutchinson - Vocals

Vinny North - Harmonica

Jack Holdstock - Drums