Saturday 11 April 2015

Larkin Poe @ The Bullingdon Oxford


Larkin Poe were a group totally unknown to me, but Mike at Empty Room Promotions was putting them on so must be ok. The Observer's quote about their performance at Glastonbury 2014 and touring with Elvis Costello bode well, so along we went to the revamped (again) Bullingdon on Oxford's Cowley Road.
The tight blackout room was just over half full when we went in and propped the bar up but by the time the sisters came on it was nearly full.
And they were more than OK
I was reminded of The Black Keys with hints of The Drive By Truckers with Rebecca Lovell on guitar, Megan Lovell of lapsteel guitar and a drummer whose name I did not catch but should not be forgotten as he played pedal bass at the same time.
Good vocals, impressive lapsteel guitar playing in the standing position (why dont we see more of this?) and great songs made it an excellent evening. Where have they been hiding?

A video can be seen here 

9/10

Wednesday 8 April 2015

Savage Beauty @ The V & A London


Fashion is not something that concerns me but I was attracted by the odd previewthat surfaced on the media a month ago, so tickets were purchased for an early evening timed entry.
What a stunning spectacle it proved to be. Held in the same location as the 'David Bowie Is' two years earlier, it was a catwalk through his many shows arranged in various 'themed' rooms leading to the large double height room with manakins, shoes, headwear stacked in black boxes to all four sides. Centre piece was my eventual favourite 'No13' which is a dress that was shown at a show where the model wearing a white dress rotated around on a dias being sprayed with dye from two performing robotic arms.

Not to be missed, 9/10


Wednesday 1 April 2015

Vintage Trouble @ KOKO, Mornington Crescent, London




Koko, Mornington Crescent, London. My favourite venue, a tight ex theatre on at least four levels and on  this night, packed to the rafters. Vintage Trouble are in town.
What followed in a lightning 85 minute set was an object lesson on how to entertain your audience. From driving R&B rock from the tight three piece lead, bass and drums (Nalle Colt, Rick Barrio Dill and Richard Danielson) to the charismatic Ty Taylor on vocals this was on hell of a performance. starting off with the band shaking each others hands, to finally leaving the stage and walking through the audience to make their way to the small front foyer to meet and greet all the Troublemakers as they left the auditorium with large smiles on their faces.
The first time I saw them was some three years previous in a 25 minute set in the middle of St Pancras Station and managed to have a little chat with Taylor and Colt they were approachable back then.  Later that year we saw them play a friends club The Plug, in Sheffield. with privileged access managed to sit on the stage right next to Dill and saw at close quarters the effort they put in. And it was there that I became aware of Taylor's penchant of going into the audience and wondered in this packed venue how was he going to repeat it. Should not have worried for about half way through a change to a roving mike signalled something was going to happen. It sure did, surfing the audience, running upstairs to the third level balcony, dancing in with the audience and on he went.
One last thing of note was the audience, an age mix which separated into two distinct zones. The oldies where generally found on the balconies with the youngsters down on the floor.

Brilliant. 9/10