Wilmington Arms
10 December 2009Even at budget-priced admission which equated to £1.25 per band, openers We Walk On Ice were overpriced.
Bleeding Heart Narrative, usually closer to somewhat quirky experimental folky music, found themselves playing for the first time without a string section and so lined up as a standard issue rock 4-piece, and went on to play a much heavier set than I had anticipated, their approach on the night moving between vaguely Beta Band and Radiohead-ish directions. Not bad but not really representative, I hope to see them again with a more typical line-up.
'Headliners' The Lost Cavalry not only featured fairy lights on their ukelele (not a euphemism) but a set of perky enough songs that loped along sounding rather like Beirut, with an occasional dash of Smiths. Singer has a nice light tenor which floated nicely over the songs. However as a noticeable proportion of the audience had left after Quinta, who were the second act to play, by the time TLC were on they were struggling slightly with a sense of anticlimax.
Quinta were the most interesting act, both musically and and in delivery; it was a full-on performance piece, starting with the band members lurking amongst the audience before gradually moving on stage to play. All very stylised, with the brown outfits, painted faces and matching quiffs, the idea of playing with performance vs being watched reappeared when we were shown our reflections in a mirror, but many of the other details of the act did not offer themselves to obvious interpretation. There was an intimate and sometimes domestic quality, with a feeling of layered history and rememberances, the violins creating a poignant, wistful mood. Best moment was My Sister, Boudicca, which with just four voices and a violin was pretty stunning. Any act that includes a musical saw, glasses of water being tuned, and a story recited in the style of a 1930's BBC continuity announcer is definitely worth further investigation.
2 comments:
Yeah, Quinta were interesting - not sure it quite worked in the pub setting but loads of potential. The Lost Cavalry were really great I thought, just a shame some people had left by then. Jon
Quinta sounds interesting - I'll check them out, since I agree with you about any act that uses a musical saw, tuned glasses etc. I am a fan of the 'Saw Lady' - www.sawlady.com - who plays such instruments.
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