Free And Easy

Monday 9th January: It’s been a while since I’ve seen a gig at Stereo. The last time I was here (in fact, the last two times) I was pretty much the only person in the audience and, I have to say, I was a little worried tonight – with just minutes to go before the gig was due to start and there was only me, one of the acts, the soundman and one other person loitering about. Thankfully, the addition of a few chairs and tables, as well as quite a few more punters, made the venue look reasonably full by the time the first act took to the stage.

Tonight is a free-entry acoustic showcase, a mix of acts I have seen before, ones I’ve heard of and one that I haven’t come across at all. Elliot Matthew Partridge is the latter and, I’ll be honest, he didn’t do a great deal with me. It’s not that his six song set was particularly bad, just that none of the songs grabbed me. For me, there were germs of promise in Moon Pies And Penny Whistles, We Are The Sons and something previously by Don’t Let Paris Fool You – a band that Elliot used to be guitarist in until recently. Unfortunately, I found the stories between the songs just the wrong side of irrelevant to the performance. It was almost as though he just wanted to get things that had annoyed him off his chest in front of an audience and that, as well as a propensity for slightly crude in-jokes with friends in the audience, distracted too much from the music for my liking. Sorry, Elliot.

Next up was Alice Ostapjuk, who I have seen perform solo before but who, apparently, now plays mostly with a band. Alice rails against the seemingly small things in life, using music and humour as her weapons. Incredibly the room was near-silent as Alice started her set with Samuel’s Secret and Love Game, a song inspired by Motown and Diana Ross (who is obviously a favourite as, just like last time I saw her, the set included a very different cover of a Diana Ross song – Where Did Our Love Go?, I think…). Her sisters playing of R&B songs inspired the aptly titled R&B Song, the lyrics of which were brilliantly humorous, blaming the genre for a large number of life’s ills. Kiss Me Better was followed by Paper Planes And Shooting Stars, another song I had heard last time out and one that most people seemed to know well enough to join in the clapping section. Finally, we got the first solo outing for Rage Against The Tangerine, another song that takes aim at the downside of some people’s lives, in this case the “perfect” girls at school, without being too serious about it. This was another interesting and enjoyable support slot from the young songwriter.

Johnny Gill was, I believe, a late replacement for Marck (Marbled) Whiley, who had to pull out due to ear problems. I knew his name, but hadn’t seen him perform before. It was, perhaps, appropriate, given his slight stature, that he started with I Was Never A Giant, a nice song played in an intricate and slightly mesmerising finger-picking style. Thieves Amongst Honour was followed by the wonderful Wolves And Waves, during which Jonny effortlessly switched between quiet and near-shouting vocal styles. Made Of Glass was a cover (I don’t remember if we were told who did it originally) and, again, featured great vocals but for me the best song of the set was something that might have been called Worst Things Happen At Sea. With just enough time to squeeze in two songs, Jonny failed to introduce the first, but finished with Friday Night Lights. A nice mix of songs, and a great voice complemented by some excellent music. Definitely an act I will be looking out for again.

I still haven’t managed to catch Mantra live, but I have seen frontman Oli Stevens-Vallecillo and guitarist Catherine Redfern perform acoustically once before. Tonight they are joined by James Fletcher, whose shiny electric bass looked just a touch out of place and seemed to be to be too loud in the mix for the early part of the set. Mixing Country and Western covers from the likes of Neal McCoy and Alan Jackson (Midnight In Montgomery) with what I assume were acoustic versions of Mantra songs such as Counting My Reasons and Always Drive Alone, provided for a varied set which was further enhanced by the use of effects pedals, some incredibly tight playing by the two guitarists and, on one song, a bottle neck playing style. Oli’s voice is superb, a kind of rich Southern drawl without coming across as too laid back and the backing vocals from Catherine were lovely. I doubt that this is what they sound like as a full band and one day I’m going to have to find out.

Finally, with the time already past the advertised finish (and with a cold bike ride home ahead of me), Boss Caine, in his now seemingly usual solo guise, took to the stage. Dan/G.T./Boss is probably my favourite acoustic act in York. Most of his songs are now so familiar that I can pretty much mime (you don’t want to hear me sing) along to the them, much as whoever was standing behind me could (only louder and more in tune) and it was nice to see people hanging around to see his set. Too many times when I have seen him opening for another act or performing in a crowded pub and, in both cases, having to try to punch through the ambient noise. Tonight’s crowd was certainly more appreciative and while Dan made light of his apparent miserablist reputation, it was also a pleasure to see him having a laugh on stage during his set. Opening with the brilliant and sombre Ghosts And Drunks he then treated us to the more uplifting duo of  A Kind Of Loving and Dead Man’s Suit and then a new song which, if he did tell us it, I missed the title of. It was back to the slightly downbeat with Be My Grievous Angel, a tribute to Graham Parsons, and Sweet Sorrow Surrender before taking an audience request for Murder On My Mind for his final song.

Overall this was a great night of acoustic music. Maybe such a showcase should be a regular or semi-regular Stereo event, with rotating, varied acts. I’d certainly be up for more nights like it.

Misty Played For Us

Monday 11th April: Given my last two start-of-the-week outings, I was a little bit apprehensive about going to another Monday night gig. One advantage of The Basement Bar is that it is a lot smaller than the other venues I frequent so, if it was a small audience, it wouldn’t look quite so empty. Conversely, a disadvantage would be that, if it was a small audience, even lingering at the back would leave you quite visible from the stage. It turns out that I needn’t have worried as a reasonably large audience made the place look quite full and I didn’t have to feel any guilt about helping to turn away the extremely drunk young man who tried to get in. (Although, if I’m honest, I doubt he even knew where he was, let alone who he might have seen if he’d been allowed in…)

Opening tonight was a young lady with the rather tongue-twisting name of Alice Ostapjuk. Self taught on the guitar and playing solo after several attempts to form a band, her quirky mannerisms and, in some ways, her voice may have given the impression that she would somehow be better as a comedy act but some of her lyrics had the ability to take your heart and wring tears out of it. Despite playing just an acoustic guitar, Alice opened with a cover of Where Did Our Love Go? (Diana Ross and the Supremes) which was instantly recognisable as one of their songs but very different to the original. From then on, it was mostly her own songs, continuing with Samuel’s Secret, the introduction for which showed her comedic overtones even if she did, in my opinion, blow the delivery by extending the story just a few words too far. Tripping, a new song, was written because a hatred of arguments and was followed by another cover, this time Fairground Attraction’s Perfect, which she had only learned recently and, despite starting off wrongly, gave a pretty good rendition. Then came the emotion. What About Us? was dedicated to her Gran, who loved to listen to her sing and, presumably, is no longer with “us” as the lyrics deal with those left behind – “The angels they took care of you, but what about the rest of us? Left bleary-eyed, we cried and cried and cried.” – and the song is delivered in such a heartfelt fashion, I suddenly found myself welling up. Thankfully, Paper Planes And Shooting Stars was much more uplifting and had the audience clapping along. Alice finished with The Chase, which was inspired by a dream and prompted another humorous story during the introduction. With a clipped but emotive delivery, simple but varied playing and, at times, some very mature writing, Alice is definitely worth checking out if you like acoustic folk/pop and most of the set can be found on Soundcloud.

Next up was David McCaffrey who, it has to be said, seemed to have managed to entice a few friends along to swell the audience. With a very mature sounding voice, which belied his youthful and slightly geeky (in the nicest way possible) appearance (David’s MySpace bio says he is still only 16, but there’s no note as to when it was last updated, so he could be as old as, gasp, 18…) and playing his guitar from the back, if you see what I mean, David started off with Sons And Daughters, a very mellow song that, even so, had some soaring vocals and was followed by Train Track North which had a nice catchy riff. Apparently, David’s favourite band is Stornaway and his only cover was a version of The End Of The Movie. Knowing neither the band or the song, I can’t comment on how good a cover it was but, again, he delivered it in style. Musically, Through The Sun was a much faster, lighter song and was followed by Mountain Tops and, finally, Stars which contained a lot of screeching of strings as fingers flew between the frets and was, in my opinion, the best song of a very good set from a promising new(ish) artist.

I couldn’t help but smile as Misty Miller prepared for her set by tuning her ukulele on what appeared to be an iPhone balanced on her knee, proving that there really is an “app” for everything. Continuing the theme of the evening, 16 year old Misty is self taught on an instrument that I always think has comedic overtones (perhaps solely due to George Formby), something which proved far from true tonight. Perhaps trying a little too hard to eschew what could have been a dainty image (young blonde girl playing a “miniature guitar”) by performing in holey t-shirt and designer shredded jeans and complete with nose ring, Misty proved to be a very confident and capable young lady. Soft spoken between songs, with a singing voice that, at times, sounded like a more refined version of Lily Allen and playing simply by brushing the strings with the fingernails, Misty started off with Evergreen Love, a lovely dreamy, wistful song before launching into Remember (the song that really made me think of Lily Allen) a much faster song with some really nice lyrics about growing up and unrequited love. Rail On Me was followed by Bones, introduced with a story about seeing her brother performing live and wanting to write a song that she could stamp her foot along to. It may have been a little stronger but I still wouldn’t have said there was much stamping going on. Wild Thing was followed by a cover of Why Try To Change Me Now? (originally by Cy Coleman and covered by Frank Sinatra) which she said she loves to sing but which, I’m afraid, did little for me. Born Bad was written while thinking about a place at college and was followed by Rabbits and the set was completed with Vampire which, being a love song to one of the undead was, perhaps, the song most expected from a girl of that age, despite containing some wonderful lyrics. It’s a very nice song but I’m willing to bet that Misty has read the Twilight series…

I wasn’t sure what to expect tonight but I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised and had a thoroughly entertaining evening.