Starting the evening off was Seabuckthorn, an artist who has impressed several MusicInOxford.co.uk writers with his recorded output of exotic, otherworldly soundscapes. His music is somewhat lost on a mostly apathetic opening-slot crowd, and his set perhaps slightly too long and meandering to hold their Friday-night attention, but those of us who surrendered ourselves to his hypnotic music were transfixed. For the first half of the set, he was joined by Duncan Scott who provided a constant drone with a Shruti box (a kind of Indian harmonium) which proved to be the perfect grounding for Seabuckthorn to improvise around a distinctly South American framework of flamenco flourishes and moody minor keys. Towards the end of the set he began to command the attention of the audience by creating distorted loops upon which to build screeching siren calls and a constant beat with a stomp box. It’s a shame that more people didn’t give Seabuckthorn the attention he undoubtedly deserved because his warm musical excursions are the perfect cure for the winter blues.
Next up was The Old Grinding Young which is the moniker of Ollie T, formerly of ute. Although this was one of his first solo outings, you wouldn’t know it, for Ollie commanded the stage with just an electric guitar and a microphone. Oh, and a late-Movember moustache: indeed, I soon found myself surrounded by a sea of them. The first impression left by the opening song is that The Old Grinding Young sound rather like ute, and I assumed that the set would be a series of confessional, if slightly warped, singer-songwritery type songs. But the set went from strength to strength and further away from the ute sound. ‘The King and the Knave’ had a Warpaint-go-medieval feel to it, while the set reached its manic high-point with set-closer ‘Down Daddy Down’. The hushed, melancholic tone of the rest of the set gave way to a frantic, bluesy one and Ollie’s mumbled croon became crazed – like the darker side of Jeff Buckley. The crowd give him a justifiably enthusiastic response. He ended on a high note.
The Graceful Slicks came with their own lighting (a kind of lava lamp affair) and immediately set the mood for their riotous ’60s garage rock freak-out. Opening song ‘Wasted’ had an authentic 13th Floor Elevators energy, which soon gave way to a relaxed bounce on ‘Rubbernecking’ (in which the band played tribute to Von Braun by incorporating a section of their song ‘Henry’s Girl’). By the time the band came to a stomping rendition of ‘Fire’ it was impossible not to get in on the fun of it all; they may not be one of the most original bands in Oxford, but they’re one of the most entertaining live bands I’ve seen in some time. For tonight’s set, at least, they moved away from the Haight-Ashbury, drugged-out vibe in favour of a high energy collection of songs with fuzz bass and excellent drumming providing a pulsing rhythm for the majority of their set. Great stuff.
Now, when one of the singers takes to the stage with a pint and a few shots of whiskey, the set can go one of two ways. Fortunately for Dave Anderson of Von Braun, the rush of whiskey to the blood seemed to do a world of good, giving their set a loose but explosive energy. From the aptly named ‘Opener’ to encore ‘Black Saxon’, Von Braun commanded the room with a set full of songs that many other bands in Oxford and elsewhere would envy. From the angular bounce of ‘Henry’s Girl’, ‘Folk Devil’ and ‘Mustard Picasso Man’, to the sweet melancholy of ‘Mr. Seaweed’, Von Braun proved themselves to be one of Oxford’s rising stars. Breakneck renditions of the poppy ‘End of Ecuador’ and ‘Cat/Dog’ threatened to self combust (drummer Gary Atkinson giving himself a particularly hard job in the faster moments of the latter) but somehow the band managed to come through in what can only be described as a thrilling performance. At one point, I turned around to see a packed Wheatsheaf cheering and nodding along to one of the songs, even demanding an encore at the end which the band coyly agreed to. Job done, go buy the EP.
A great night that displayed the wide spectrum of musical talent that Oxford has to offer. Truly fantastic.
[Originally published on MusicinOxford.co.uk, 27/11/2011]
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