20 February 2014 (gig)
23 February 2014
Southend On Sea’s favourite sons played an acoustic set at the Green Note last Thursday and played a little over an hour of absolutely captivating Americana/Roots/folk that showed off just what British music is capable of.
The place was packed out and with the 5 piece outfit squeezed on to a stage made for a single performer it made the boys change positions to allow each to feature and this itself gave the crowd different looks as well as sounds and they seemed to respond wholeheartedly – by the end there was dancing with abandon and huge smiles all around the venue.
They featured their new fiddler, Toby, who adds sax, flute and pennywhistle to the array of sounds the band make and with David Giles on accordion, Matthew Boulter on guitar and vocals, William Bray on snare drum and Paul Ambrose on bass they featured songs from all over their repertoire including a raucous ‘Beast Burnt Down’ and a wicked ‘Butcher And Mrs Shaw’ from the latest album ‘The Exile And The Sea’.
This was one of those sets that has you looking at your watch after they have finished and wondering how the time went that fast. Excellent performance and wonderful music that the crowd took to their hearts with passion.
Earlier the crowd were treated to a set by Swiss Americana outfit Lonesome Southern Comfort Company. I would best describe their sound as dark and mood inducing but there is no doubt that they are superb musicians. Their music has many of the qualities of the Velvet Underground and I’d like to see them in a headlining set sometime, possibly in a place where the volume of the music is not as constrained.
