Friday 11th February: Once again, there's three of us out. This time it's Fibbers to see one of my favourite bands on the first date of their 2011 Satellite Tour.
First, though, we have Marck "Marbled" Whiley taking the stage with his acoustic guitar to play us some "folky" songs (his description). This is the third time I've seen Marck and, I have to admit, I find him a bit of a mixed bag. I enjoy some of his songs and dislike others, but none really engage me. There is no denying that he is much more than competent on the guitar, using a mixture of techniques (no finger picking tonight, though) and that he has a good voice, although it can be a little too piercing when he hits the high notes. What he does do very well, is engage the audience - after renditions of Licking Electricity, Birds And Bee (with its repeated picturesque line of "White swan on an ink black lake"), Mary Poppins Blood Line with its minimal guitars starkly contrasting with the more powerful Spider In The Bath, during which most of the audience were pretty apathetic, he asked whether we wanted something more up-tempo or something slower. "Up-tempo!" shouted Roj, which prompted Marck to leave the stage, gather the audience around him and play The Beat Goes On completely unplugged, much has he did last time we saw him. I even spotted members of the headline band peering through the green room window in what appeared to be incredulous amusement as he did so. He followed this with another unplugged song, A Pony That (if I remember correctly...), which is his "Valentine's Day" song and was duly sung directly to a lady from the audience. Returning to the stage, the set ended with the quiet Notre Dame which segued into the much faster, almost rockier, Run Rabbit Run, which is one of my favourites. Once again a mixed set from a very confident artist. I just wish his songs did more for me than they actually do.
I guess it's something to do with the size of both the city itself and, perhaps, its venues, that means that York doesn't get too many of the current crop of UK progressive rock bands playing here. Panic Room, however, with their obvious links to the city's own Mostly Autumn, have a reasonably sized York-based following and are playing their fourth gig here tonight at Fibbers. The venue itself has had its detractors since the refit last year, but it does seem to be ironing out some of the problems and is certainly attracting some decent bands. Panic Room themselves are a band most definitely on the up. Lead singer Anne-Marie Helder was recently voted best female singer by Classic Rock Presents Prog magazine, while the band's 2010 album, Satellite, featured as a top ten entry in end of years polls in both that magazine and Classic Rock itself.
Taking to the stage through a haze of blue smoke, the band make an entrance worthy of a bigger venue, before bursting into a rendition of Freedom To Breathe, following that with Picking Up Knives, Yasuni, The Fall and Black Noise, all from Satellite. Switching to their debut album, Visionary Position, the band seem to have tweaked Elektra City a little, using new vocal effects and making it a bit darker towards the end. Reborn is followed by a return to Satellite and a welcome return to the live set for Into The Fire. This is followed by Song For Tomorrow, a new song the lyrics for which were reportedly being written in the van on the way up to the gig. It opens with just keyboards before bursting into life with some of the band's heaviest guitar work and a middle piano section leads to a simple drums and vocal section before it bursts into life again - a fantastic new song. next up comes 5th Amendment, from Little Satellite (the bonus disk that shipped with last year's album), then it's back to the debut for Apocalypstick, with it's haunting Eastern tones. There's a brief departure from their own material as the cover version of ELP's Bitches Crystal, originally recorded for a Prog cover CD that is now very unlikely to ever see the light of day, is performed. Dark Star and Satellite, the latter with a very interesting if somewhat brief spacey bass section from, end the main set.
Unsurprisingly, Anne-Marie et al return to the stage for an encore, this time of another new song, again being completed on the way up. "I think this one is going to be called Promises," states Anne-Marie, perhaps to the surprise of the rest of the band. It's a bit funkier than the rest of their output but, like Song For Tomorrow, remains unmistakeably a Panic Room song.
I've seen Panic Room every time they have played York and this is by far the best performance they have put on in the city, helped in no small part by a very good light show and, for the most part, unusually clear sound which meant that Anne-Marie's vocals could be heard above the music for most of the set. Clearly enjoying themselves and singing the venue's praises, the band played a superb nearly two-hour set, mixing it up just enough from the tour last year. The addition of the new songs must surely promise that work on a new album is around the corner and, if they can come up with songs anywhere near as good as tonight's it's going to be a cracker. Finally a word about Paul Davies - I love watching him play guitar. His facial expressions convey everything from the ease with which he plays to the fact that he seems to live every note.
It may only be mid-way through February but tonight is an early contender for best live performance in my round up of the year.
Showing posts with label Marbled. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Marbled. Show all posts
Saturday, 12 February 2011
Monday, 20 September 2010
Late Night Socialising
Wednesday 15th September: Time for a midweek outing to Stereo to see a couple of favourites...
...but first, it's Marbled, who I last saw supporting Fish at The Duchess. I freely admitted that I wasn't taking much notice that evening and my over-riding memory was of an angry tone (I'm fairly sure it wasn't directed at those of us who were chatting at the back, but you never know) to both his lyrics and his guitar playing. So, I was quite surprised to find that tonight's act was primarily of a much softer nature with a mixture of styles, including some clever finger-picking. The vocals were much more subtle than I remembered, with only his final song being what I would describe as "shouty". Licking Electricity was somewhere in the middle of the two extremes and was my favourite song of the set. He also came out into the crowd and played The Beat Goes On, a fully acoustic pop song about how rubbish music was in the 60's, when people just went to gigs to scream at the band. A pleasant start to the evening, if not completely to my tastes.
Next up was Gary Stewart, the only act on tonight's bill that I hadn't seen before. Or had I? He did look slightly familiar. I'm sure it will come back to me... Gary started off with In The Pines, a nice little bit of delicate guitar backed by a singing voice which, at least partly due to his Scottish accent, sounded a bit more folky than most acts we see. Jekyll And Hyde was a harder, foot stomping song, while Maggie Oh was a much faster piece. Three songs and we already knew that he had variety. Joined by Rich Huxley for the third song, we also saw a bit of humour and banter coming out as well. Rich also played on Take Me Down but then left the stage for Behind The Door which was, in my opinion, too repetitive. All the songs so far had come from Gary's debut album, Boy Cries Wolf, which was released just this week. His final song, which doesn't appear on the album (and whose title I missed) featured some much more powerful guitar-playing and echo-enhanced vocals. It was also my favourite song from the set.
(Addendum - I bought Boy Cries Wolf on the night and am happy to say that, with the vocals on Behind The Door being shared with Ellen Smith, of Ellen And The Escapades, the repetitiveness is diminished and it's a much better song.)
GT Turbo, tonight in his Boss Caine persona (or is it always that way? He has so many names, I get confused.) is another favourite of mine. The only problem I have is that his songs are so good and so easily imprinted on my memory that it can feel as though you are hearing the same set over and over, even when he varies it. So, it was with some pleasure that I heard him play a completely new (to me) song, Father Time, last time I saw him. Tonight it got even better with two more new songs. At least one of these, Devils On Dean Street if I heard correctly, will be on his second album (due any time now and not soon enough). Only one song, the lovely Sweet Sorrow Surrender, came from the debut album, while Dead Man's Suit and "She Laughs At All My Jokes" (not the real title, but if you've heard it, you'll know the song) are two of his staples. For the final song, "a cautionary tale about cocaine", he was joined by Tim Fox on harmonica, providing a nice symmetry to the set as the opener, the aforementioned Father Time, featured Vin North on the same instrument. This was another brilliant, if short, set from York's very own Boss.
Finally, though, it was the band that we'd all come along to see (no offence to the others...). But who is the little guy taking up position on the drum stool? Well, it's none other than Gary Stewart. No wonder he looked familiar - it was just the lack of blue blazer and drumsticks and the addition of a guitar which had prevented us from recognising Hope & Social's drummer. That explains why Rich knew so many of his songs. Now, by this time, we had moved forward quite considerably and, in fact, made up part of the front row of the audience. Because of that, I didn't use my mobile to take any notes - partly because it would have looked a bit rude and partly because I didn't want Simon to see me and think I was texting somebody. So, titles of songs played tonight are sadly missing from this review. I can, however, remember that there was a good mix of songs from both albums (Architects Of This Church and April - both available at whatever price you want to pay from the above link) with, perhaps, more from the first album than last time we saw them.
It has to be said that, tonight, the band were on fire, playing louder, heavier and faster than I ever remember them doing in the past. Rich was practically dancing across his effects pedals, while Ed seemed to use every extremity (and more than one elbow) to play his keyboards, barely sitting in his seat. Banter was thrown around the stage like their lives depended on it with any slight mistake (and there were a few) picked up and mercilessly exploited and any chance for p*ss-taking taken without hesitation. Once again, with a small stage, large band (although the brass section was down to just two tonight), number of instruments and the amount of bouncing and spinning going on, it's somewhat amazing that nobody got injured and that nothing got broken, such was the enthusiasm on show tonight. Sadly, there were no kazoos (I'd lost mine but two of the gang had brought theirs along) but we did get the audience singalong during the usual acoustic version of Looking For Answers, which is always nice to both hear and be a part of. Hope & Social are never disappointing and tonight was easily the best gig of theirs that I've been to. A thoroughly entertaining evening which, thankfully, went on well beyond the advertised finish time.
...but first, it's Marbled, who I last saw supporting Fish at The Duchess. I freely admitted that I wasn't taking much notice that evening and my over-riding memory was of an angry tone (I'm fairly sure it wasn't directed at those of us who were chatting at the back, but you never know) to both his lyrics and his guitar playing. So, I was quite surprised to find that tonight's act was primarily of a much softer nature with a mixture of styles, including some clever finger-picking. The vocals were much more subtle than I remembered, with only his final song being what I would describe as "shouty". Licking Electricity was somewhere in the middle of the two extremes and was my favourite song of the set. He also came out into the crowd and played The Beat Goes On, a fully acoustic pop song about how rubbish music was in the 60's, when people just went to gigs to scream at the band. A pleasant start to the evening, if not completely to my tastes.
Next up was Gary Stewart, the only act on tonight's bill that I hadn't seen before. Or had I? He did look slightly familiar. I'm sure it will come back to me... Gary started off with In The Pines, a nice little bit of delicate guitar backed by a singing voice which, at least partly due to his Scottish accent, sounded a bit more folky than most acts we see. Jekyll And Hyde was a harder, foot stomping song, while Maggie Oh was a much faster piece. Three songs and we already knew that he had variety. Joined by Rich Huxley for the third song, we also saw a bit of humour and banter coming out as well. Rich also played on Take Me Down but then left the stage for Behind The Door which was, in my opinion, too repetitive. All the songs so far had come from Gary's debut album, Boy Cries Wolf, which was released just this week. His final song, which doesn't appear on the album (and whose title I missed) featured some much more powerful guitar-playing and echo-enhanced vocals. It was also my favourite song from the set.
(Addendum - I bought Boy Cries Wolf on the night and am happy to say that, with the vocals on Behind The Door being shared with Ellen Smith, of Ellen And The Escapades, the repetitiveness is diminished and it's a much better song.)
GT Turbo, tonight in his Boss Caine persona (or is it always that way? He has so many names, I get confused.) is another favourite of mine. The only problem I have is that his songs are so good and so easily imprinted on my memory that it can feel as though you are hearing the same set over and over, even when he varies it. So, it was with some pleasure that I heard him play a completely new (to me) song, Father Time, last time I saw him. Tonight it got even better with two more new songs. At least one of these, Devils On Dean Street if I heard correctly, will be on his second album (due any time now and not soon enough). Only one song, the lovely Sweet Sorrow Surrender, came from the debut album, while Dead Man's Suit and "She Laughs At All My Jokes" (not the real title, but if you've heard it, you'll know the song) are two of his staples. For the final song, "a cautionary tale about cocaine", he was joined by Tim Fox on harmonica, providing a nice symmetry to the set as the opener, the aforementioned Father Time, featured Vin North on the same instrument. This was another brilliant, if short, set from York's very own Boss.
Finally, though, it was the band that we'd all come along to see (no offence to the others...). But who is the little guy taking up position on the drum stool? Well, it's none other than Gary Stewart. No wonder he looked familiar - it was just the lack of blue blazer and drumsticks and the addition of a guitar which had prevented us from recognising Hope & Social's drummer. That explains why Rich knew so many of his songs. Now, by this time, we had moved forward quite considerably and, in fact, made up part of the front row of the audience. Because of that, I didn't use my mobile to take any notes - partly because it would have looked a bit rude and partly because I didn't want Simon to see me and think I was texting somebody. So, titles of songs played tonight are sadly missing from this review. I can, however, remember that there was a good mix of songs from both albums (Architects Of This Church and April - both available at whatever price you want to pay from the above link) with, perhaps, more from the first album than last time we saw them.
It has to be said that, tonight, the band were on fire, playing louder, heavier and faster than I ever remember them doing in the past. Rich was practically dancing across his effects pedals, while Ed seemed to use every extremity (and more than one elbow) to play his keyboards, barely sitting in his seat. Banter was thrown around the stage like their lives depended on it with any slight mistake (and there were a few) picked up and mercilessly exploited and any chance for p*ss-taking taken without hesitation. Once again, with a small stage, large band (although the brass section was down to just two tonight), number of instruments and the amount of bouncing and spinning going on, it's somewhat amazing that nobody got injured and that nothing got broken, such was the enthusiasm on show tonight. Sadly, there were no kazoos (I'd lost mine but two of the gang had brought theirs along) but we did get the audience singalong during the usual acoustic version of Looking For Answers, which is always nice to both hear and be a part of. Hope & Social are never disappointing and tonight was easily the best gig of theirs that I've been to. A thoroughly entertaining evening which, thankfully, went on well beyond the advertised finish time.
Wednesday, 14 July 2010
Something Fishy
Tuesday 13th July: Looking back to when I first started listening to music, there was a time when I was quite possessive (some might say anal) about some of the bands I liked. I'm not sure that I had even heard the term "prog rock" when I first heard Yes, Pink Floyd, Rush or Genesis, but they were among my favourites at the time and, despite all being of a genre, they all sounded different. Then along came a new band which, to me at the time, seemed to be trying to emulate the sound of Genesis. I can't say that I ever disliked Marillion, but I certainly never embraced them. In fact, metaphorically, I barely stepped forward to give them a peck on the cheek. I was aware of them (it was hard not to be) and I bought a 12" picture disc version of Lavender, but that was it. I never followed them and, until recently, I couldn't tell you when Fish left them or who was in the current line-up, let alone the names of any of the more recent albums.
Then, earlier this year, I spotted some of their albums in a bargain deal on play.com and, with my renewed (and growing) interest in prog, decided I had to buy them if only so my CD collection contained a valid historical cross-section of the genre. Imagine my surprise when they arrived and I gave them the usual cursory play only to find that I actually really liked them. One of them, Misplaced Childhood, is actually turning out to be one of my all-time favourite albums.
The similarities to the output of Genesis are still there. Fish's vocals still remind me of something halfway between Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins and some of the lyrics could have escaped from the Foxtrot era - I defy anybody to listen to "A train sleeps in a siding; The driver guzzles another can of lager" without thinking of that classic album. The way that the tracks of Misplaced Childhood merge into each other, with nary a break anywhere on the album, is reminiscent of the various live medleys that Genesis are so good at and that are one of my favourite things about their output.
But there's also so much more, including another influence that I only spotted the last time I played the CD. Does the opening of Heart of Lothian sound like Rush to anybody else? Quite frankly, the music is superb and grows in power as the album progresses. And Fish's vocals? Well, with maturity comes the realisation that he was never just a Gabriel wannabe. From the rumbling Scottish accent of the spoken word, through the lightness of tone in Bitter Suite and the suppressed power of Heart of Lothian right through to the outright anger during parts of Blind Curve, there's so much range and not a bad performance on the whole album.
Even if I hadn't reconsidered my opinion of Marillion, I would almost certainly still have been at The Duchess tonight, to see Fish perform an intimate acoustic set of (mostly) his solo material, which I hadn't previously heard any of. There are just some people that I have to see when they visit this fair city, whether I know much about them or not...
Support came from Marbled and I'm ashamed to say that I didn't pay too much attention, as I was chatting with local celebrities and their friends and family, mostly about Fish and Marillion but also about music in general. Thankfully, one of them was also willing to escort me to the merchandise table and spend my hard-earned for me, pointing out which of Fish's output was worth buying having been given a quick idea of what I already liked, while everybody else at the table played "spot the newbie". Having now listened to all three CDs that I bought I can't decide whether it's a good job or a shame that I didn't have more cash with me (the missus probably wouldn't have been impressed if I'd turned up with more or less the whole back catalogue but, then again, I would have had more or less the whole back catalogue...) Anyway, I can't tell you too much about Marbled, except that he was another "man with guitar" act, came across as a bit angry in parts but otherwise sounded OK.
Then, as pretty much the whole of the surprisingly small audience moved forward, fish took to the stage and belted out Chocolate Frogs with no accompaniment. For the rest of the two hour set, he was joined by Frank Usher (guitar) and Foss Paterson (keyboards) and we were treated to acoustic renditions of the likes of Shell Suit City, Miles de Besos, Vigil In A Wilderness Of Mirrors, Lady Let It Lie, Speaking In Tongues, Family Business, Just Good Friends and lots more, from what seems to be a varied cross section of the man's solo output.
In between songs, Fish showed what a humorous, self-effacing and, well, talkative person he is. Songs were introduced by the stories behind them, such as the bitter-sweet memories of falling in love in Chile for Miles de Besos, or the reasons for writing the likes of The Pilgrim's Address (a song which must have had special resonance for at least one of tonight's audience). Other gaps were used to give Fish's opinion on the World Cup performance of the English football team or for him to, basically, take the mickey out of his own personal life and failed relationships. Whatever he was talking about, though, he held the audience captivated. This was by far the quietest gig, in terms of unwanted audience, noise that I've ever experienced (apart from the encouraged heckling). And what an experience it was - the stripping down of the songs to their basics, along with Fish's superb vocals meant that practically every word could be heard while the music was an absolute pleasure to listen to. As for stage presence, I don't think I've ever seen anybody command a stage as well as Fish did tonight.
The set finished with the only two songs that I knew - a rendition of Kayleigh which made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and nearly brought a tear to my eye, and an almost as good version of Lavender. Then after a short time off stage, the trio returned to perform Lucky with enthusiastic audience participation.
All in all, this was an absolutely brilliant, thoroughly entertaining performance. It may have been the first time I've seen Fish, but I fervently hope it won't be the last. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a couple of back catalogues I need to peruse...
Then, earlier this year, I spotted some of their albums in a bargain deal on play.com and, with my renewed (and growing) interest in prog, decided I had to buy them if only so my CD collection contained a valid historical cross-section of the genre. Imagine my surprise when they arrived and I gave them the usual cursory play only to find that I actually really liked them. One of them, Misplaced Childhood, is actually turning out to be one of my all-time favourite albums.
The similarities to the output of Genesis are still there. Fish's vocals still remind me of something halfway between Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins and some of the lyrics could have escaped from the Foxtrot era - I defy anybody to listen to "A train sleeps in a siding; The driver guzzles another can of lager" without thinking of that classic album. The way that the tracks of Misplaced Childhood merge into each other, with nary a break anywhere on the album, is reminiscent of the various live medleys that Genesis are so good at and that are one of my favourite things about their output.
But there's also so much more, including another influence that I only spotted the last time I played the CD. Does the opening of Heart of Lothian sound like Rush to anybody else? Quite frankly, the music is superb and grows in power as the album progresses. And Fish's vocals? Well, with maturity comes the realisation that he was never just a Gabriel wannabe. From the rumbling Scottish accent of the spoken word, through the lightness of tone in Bitter Suite and the suppressed power of Heart of Lothian right through to the outright anger during parts of Blind Curve, there's so much range and not a bad performance on the whole album.
Even if I hadn't reconsidered my opinion of Marillion, I would almost certainly still have been at The Duchess tonight, to see Fish perform an intimate acoustic set of (mostly) his solo material, which I hadn't previously heard any of. There are just some people that I have to see when they visit this fair city, whether I know much about them or not...
Support came from Marbled and I'm ashamed to say that I didn't pay too much attention, as I was chatting with local celebrities and their friends and family, mostly about Fish and Marillion but also about music in general. Thankfully, one of them was also willing to escort me to the merchandise table and spend my hard-earned for me, pointing out which of Fish's output was worth buying having been given a quick idea of what I already liked, while everybody else at the table played "spot the newbie". Having now listened to all three CDs that I bought I can't decide whether it's a good job or a shame that I didn't have more cash with me (the missus probably wouldn't have been impressed if I'd turned up with more or less the whole back catalogue but, then again, I would have had more or less the whole back catalogue...) Anyway, I can't tell you too much about Marbled, except that he was another "man with guitar" act, came across as a bit angry in parts but otherwise sounded OK.
Then, as pretty much the whole of the surprisingly small audience moved forward, fish took to the stage and belted out Chocolate Frogs with no accompaniment. For the rest of the two hour set, he was joined by Frank Usher (guitar) and Foss Paterson (keyboards) and we were treated to acoustic renditions of the likes of Shell Suit City, Miles de Besos, Vigil In A Wilderness Of Mirrors, Lady Let It Lie, Speaking In Tongues, Family Business, Just Good Friends and lots more, from what seems to be a varied cross section of the man's solo output.
In between songs, Fish showed what a humorous, self-effacing and, well, talkative person he is. Songs were introduced by the stories behind them, such as the bitter-sweet memories of falling in love in Chile for Miles de Besos, or the reasons for writing the likes of The Pilgrim's Address (a song which must have had special resonance for at least one of tonight's audience). Other gaps were used to give Fish's opinion on the World Cup performance of the English football team or for him to, basically, take the mickey out of his own personal life and failed relationships. Whatever he was talking about, though, he held the audience captivated. This was by far the quietest gig, in terms of unwanted audience, noise that I've ever experienced (apart from the encouraged heckling). And what an experience it was - the stripping down of the songs to their basics, along with Fish's superb vocals meant that practically every word could be heard while the music was an absolute pleasure to listen to. As for stage presence, I don't think I've ever seen anybody command a stage as well as Fish did tonight.
The set finished with the only two songs that I knew - a rendition of Kayleigh which made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and nearly brought a tear to my eye, and an almost as good version of Lavender. Then after a short time off stage, the trio returned to perform Lucky with enthusiastic audience participation.
All in all, this was an absolutely brilliant, thoroughly entertaining performance. It may have been the first time I've seen Fish, but I fervently hope it won't be the last. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a couple of back catalogues I need to peruse...
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