Serena Smith & Firends

SERENA SMITH & FRIENDS

Musician Pub 28th January 2024

Tonight at The Musician Pub was one of those glorious joyful evenings where you leave buzzing about what you've just heard... Tonight was a visit from the wonderful Serena Smith and Friends and the show was a total joy from the first bar to the last.

Serena hails originally from Minnesota where she absorbed irish traditional music and now leads a hugely gifted band playing fiddle music across so many genres and styles..

She is a truly magnificent fiddle player, bringing to life a range of fiddle styles predominantly gealic/celtic but also including a fusion of 90's dance with irish music.

The opening piece of the evening was some 10 or 12 minutes long taking us on a mesmerizing tour of fiddle styles and the set continued ringing the changes from different musical forms.

The band proved to be more than simply a support... Joss Ward (guitar), Crauford Thomson (bass) and Mark McLaughlan (drums) are all gifted and experienced musicians themselves and all had a chance to show their talents with solos as well as impeccable accompaniemtn to Serena's fiddle.

After a short break the band came back for the second half and very soon Mark left the stage to re-appear playing bagpipes on some rousing scottish tunes as Serena kicked off her boots and did some very nimble irish dancing.

Further into the set Serena produced a tin whistle and demonstrated that she is also a pretty fine whistle player... Eventually we came to the last piece.. this was the 90's dance and irish traditional music. This piece was also of epic proportions and flew along with countless variations and tempo/rhythm changes and built up and up to a massively rousing climax with Serena pogo-ing and whirling as she played, ending on what appeared a straightforward irish tune which ripped along at terrific pace.

Serena is a fabulous fiddle player and a hugely entertaining and engaging stage presence, and together with three very talented musicians in support . The whole band gel perfectly and together delivered a truly memorable evenings entertainment.

Huge thanks to Serena, Joss, Crauford and Mark for such a joyful and wonderful evening.

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Neck

NECK

Musician Pub 26th January 2024

Friday night at the The Musician Pub saw a performance by NECK... one of the most bizarre and exhilarating gigs in many a long day...

Neck play a brand of psychelic celtic punk with a large hint of Ramones in there... Despite being hampered by the loss of the fiddle player (covid) and whistle player (stranded on a flight from India) they still delivered well over 2-1/2 hours of glorious anarchic music.

They nearly arrived on stager at 9.00pm.. well three of them did and about 15 minutes later the singer/leader joined them and after a few minutes they ripped into the first piece... 2 songs in the leader got off the stage and disappeared for a couple of minutes to resume where he's left off...

The band kicked off at break neck speed and continued like a runaway train building up the pace as they went. The set was a mixture of original songs and traditional irish songs all delivered with huge energy and power... and breakneck speed. Between songs the leader took small sip from his pint, adjusted the pedals on the floor and moved with sloth like agility to switch from guitar to banjo.. in a few songs holding both and switching from one to the other and back mid song...

The first set then finished around the time the gigs normally end... but in this case they were only half way and came back on after a short break... again the band stood on stage chatting while waiting for the leader. Once he appeared they carried on from where they left off... continuing to deliver high class high energy exhilarating music.

As the show progressed the drummer had to leave the stage for a natural break but assured the band he would be back before his part in the song came in... he was...

The set continued to build and inevitably there were encores... starting with a wonderful acapella rendition of "The Auld Triangle" during which the drummer left the stage to embrace the audience and sing the chorus.. the final encore picked up the speed even further and saw the bass player playing and dancing with the audience...

So there it was... the band finally finished an epic set at around quarter past twelve...

And what of the band generally.. propelled by some incredibly powerful drumming and bass playing and some feisty guitar work. The leader played guitar and banjo and despite his languid approach to proceedings sang with vigour and commitment through out.

This was a totally exhilarating set, high energy, power and hugely exciting fair... we were left to wonder what it would have been like had the fiddle and whistle players been there as well... but regardless.. this gig left me speechless.. wonderful stuff.

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Hector Gannet/Chief Springs/The Early Purple/Humble He

HECTOR GANNET/CHIEF SPRING/THE EARLY PURPLE/HUMBLE HE

Musician Pub 25th January 2024

Another gig at The Musician Pub... and a busy one it was with an early start and four bands performing.

To start with we saw HUMBLE HE... A duo with two voices and one acoustic guitar. Singing a range of their own songs, with i felt a hint of Nick Drake in the vocals and the harmony between the voices were good. There was some pretty good guitar work there as well... A very nice start to the evening.

Next up was a bit of a surprise, billed as the band THE EARLY PURPLE we got an solo singer/songwriter playing acoustic guitar. The band is based around leader Matt Saxon, who for logistical reasons was unable to bring the band, so played solo.Nice voice and some nibble finger picked guitar Matt delivered an enjoyable though slightly low key set

After Matt came 6 piece band, CHEIF SPRINGS, featuring two electric guitars, one acoustic, plus bass, drums and singer. The musicianship and vocals in the band were very good. Again they featured their own songs and delivered a highly competent set.

I can summarize the first three acts collectively.. they were all very capable musicians and produced some fine songs. I can see nothing to criticise except that they all needed that little extra something to raise them to a higher level.

As a general comment, the gig felt a bit rushed up to this point due to the logistics of fitting in four bands during the available time slot

Finally, the headliners, Hector Gannet were on. I have seen them before as a band, and Hector playing a solo set... both were excellent and tonights band performance was absolutely terrific.

Hector is a charismatic leader with a fine voice and plays fine guitar, both acoustic and electric. He has gathered together a really high class band who work together superbly and provide perfect accompaniement.

The set is beautifully paced, mixing in louder rocky pieces along with solo and almost solo songs in around equal measure. Hector sings all with huge assurance and commitment at all times and the band provide ideal support. The songs are predominently self written, but feature a couple of covers, "Blue Murder" (Alan Hull) and "Johnny Appleseed" (Joe Strummer) both of which are delivered with huge power and commitment. A highlight, for me, was a passionate and superb solo rendition of a great song called "Wailing Wall" which Hector had said he was reluctant to play live as he has been known to get it wrong.

Overall, an enjoyable bight topped off with an outstanding set by Hector Gannet

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SBT (Sarabeth Tucet)/Matandrob

SBT (SARABETH TUCET)/MATANDROB

Musician Pub 24th January 2024

Another night at The Musician Pub, and this one was a bit of a punt, as I knew nothing about either band playing...

First up was a guitar/vocals and drum duo called MATANDROB. They started off quite low key and it didn't change... the guitarist/singer sang in a slightly nasal almost falsetto voice and i have no idea what he was singing while the guitar playing didn't excite. The drummer continued to plod along with him. There was no light or shade in the performance and absolutely no rapport with the audience... both men looked totally disinterested throughout and barely acknowledged the audience, no chat between songs other than a single mumbled thank you and announcing this will be out last song. Even when thanking SBT and the band for lending the equipment they didn't appear to know the bands name.

Sad to say... but this was the most unremittingly dismal depressing set i have heard for many a long year.

After a relatively short break, on came the SBT band, who greeted the audience and looked set to deliver a show. Once they were ready SBT (Sarabeth Tucek) joined them on stage and stepped up to the microphone.

The band were superb, driven by a rock steady bass and a fine drummer who hit the drums at times with huge force, and played excellently throughout. The other musician played guitar, both electric and 12 string acoustic and a keyboard player who used keyboards and mellotron as well as contributing electric guitar at some point., For me the band was at its best when the guitar led accompanied by keyboard

SBT has a fine voice but part of the time her vocals were rather muffled so i couldn't make out the lyrics, while at other times her voice was light and clear and very appealing. Again, other than introducing the band members towards the end there was no chat between pieces. This was a real curates egg of a performance... overall I enjoyed it, but while some passages were outstandingly good, others were far less so.

Overall pretty good perfromance but nothing to inspire seeing the band again

Not one of the great nights at the Musician!

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