Toast – 1st February 2012

I went to this event to support one of my friends, and ended up having a great time! Toast is a bar in the middle of Falmouth, and due to its size, I wasn’t sure how it would cope with hosting a gig. However the atmosphere in there was great, with everyone really supportive of the acts, and banter aplenty.

The night started off with Jenny-Anne Woodberry who performed a mixture of her own songs and some covers. I loved her take on Florence + The Machine’s You’ve Got the Love that kicked off her set, and really caught the audience’s attention. My favourite of her own songs was entitled Lady Jealousy and it was really lively and catchy. Her other songs were good, but did sound really quite similar (which she admitted herself), however I think with time, she could develop a really interesting style, with many of her songs influenced by her surroundings in Falmouth which made it really personal to her and different – she was singing about stuff she had actually been through which made her more appealing.

Next came Michael Milner who played the accordion. He was an excellent musician, however his performance did provide more of a background music feel rather than a lead performance, which I think was mainly due to his performance skills. Sitting down, he did not really catch the eye or hold the audience, nor talk in between songs. If he did this, I definitely think he would have an unusual and fun style that many would love.

My friends and I loved the third act on the bill – Kezia. Seemingly a very modest and humble performer, her voice was amazing – it has such a soft and lilting sound to it, that makes it so easy to listen to. She performed a mixture of her own songs and covers with an acoustic guitar. Her voice is very mature and beautiful and she also plays the guitar incredibly well – finger picking whilst she sings, which a lot of performers can’t do very well at all. From what I understand, she is gigging a lot in the area at the moment and I would definitely recommend you to go see her – she can be found on Facebook at Kezia, if you like her page, all the information is on there.

The headliners of the evening were a band called Tiger Years. Consisting of three acoustic guitars, a bass, a trumpet, and percussion instruments that all get swapped around the band constantly, and the majority of the band having great voices, this group definitely closed the night perfectly. For fear of offending the band, I will not try to compare their sound to anyone else, plus I think they have a really unique style to them anyway. Although none of their songs are particularly catchy or memorable at first, their set was highly enjoyable, and they did not seem to play even one dud song. Seeing a band who all seem as talented as each other is very rare and they definitely epitomize the music scene down here – as their kind of music is highly popular. Having looked on their Facebook page, they also do electric sets, and are gigging all the time in the area – I would urge you to go watch!

All in all, the night at Toast was brilliant, all the acts were a high standard, and I would definitely go to the venue again as it seems popular, it fills up, and provides an intimate setting within which you can enjoy a great drink and a gig with friends.

Tribes – Baby

Firstly, I must say this – what a terrible album title. I quite like the band name Tribes, but originality is key at the moment – especially with indie bands, and Baby is not the most creative thing in the world. However, with this being their debut album, the band have done well to get straight into the album chart this week.

This band are SO easy to listen to! Apart from the song Alone or With Friends (which I found to be quite boring), the album just flies by. Having never heard any of the bands songs before, I was shocked to find myself humming to the song Corner of an English Field and other songs had a strange familiarity about them. Maybe this is because the band sound like so many others that have been before them. However, is that such a bad thing? The lead singer has a voice that is so easy to listen to, the songs are easy to sing-a-long to, for example Sappho, and not all the songs sound the same which means they are recognisable.

Slower songs such as Himalaya provide a nice contrast with their slower and softer nature. The band have an almost Razorlight quality at times, especially in the softer songs. They also do the faster ones well too though, which means they’re not just a one-trick pony.

The main criticism of the album, is that the last three songs I felt were album fillers, and found to be quite boring and similar to others. This is often the case with indie band albums, but I think you should just put your best songs on the album, not try to add three more to make a larger amount of songs on there.

Do we really need another band like Tribes? Probably not. Is there room for them? Again, probably not. However, the nice familiarity of their songs, coupled with catchy tunes, and easy to latch onto words mean that I think they are definitely worth a listen to. Overall, a fairly good album, and I hope to hear more from them in future.

Enter Shikari – ‘A Flash Flood of Colour’

Seeing as I have not been to any gigs this week, I thought I would start by reviewing some albums instead! The highest new album in the chart this week is Enter Shikari’s 3rd album – A Flash Flood of Colour which is currently 4th in the UK album chart.

Described by the band themselves as anti-political, I was curious as to how, and whether this would simply be an angry album for anger’s sake. After listening to the album, I would love to see it live, as I think it would work much better as a show rather than an album, as I can definitely see some clear sing – a – long points (possibly that the band have intentionally put in on purpose), for instance the line ‘warm smiles do not make you welcome here’ in the song of the same name, which is repeated over and over.

The first two songs on the album – System... and …Meltdown that blend into one another in a very clever way, gave me high hopes that this was going to be an excellent album. They were catchy but not in a pop way, just in a memorable way, and had a good beat to them. The album then progresses into the more screamo, sssnakepit which seemed a bit disjointed to me, as if the genre crossover that the band are famed for didn’t quite work.

I liked the song Stalemate because the lyrics were very well – written and a poignant ending of I’ll live out this fantasy repeated again and again (partly again I feel due to the band thinking about crowd pleasers). My favourite song on the album was Arguing with Thermometers, that starts off a headbanger and then turns into a real dance tune, with elements of drum + bass in it. This song really used the genre crossovers well and I really could listen to it over and over.

However, some of the other songs, I could not. The political element of Gandhi Mate, Gandhi was mainly what the band were talking about when they said it was anti – political. It starts with a long rant on society, and then proceeds onto the more shouty side of the front man. The talking then comes back to provide a welcome break from the choruses which left a lot to be desired.

A couple of the songs feel very much like album fillers on this album, but the last track Constellations definitely finishes it with a bang. The majority of the song is talking, but the musicality and the words are really impressive and it’s a stand-out song.

I can’t make up my mind about this album. I think regular Enter Shikari fans will love it, and also you can either blast it and sing – a – long at the top of your voice or have it in the background which is great. The reason I’m uncertain is just because of a couple of the songs have disjointedness and slight blandness that detracts from really enjoying this from start to finish.