Psicle: Weavin an rockin

Friday, October 23, 2015

Weavin an rockin

I arrive bang on time, of course, and Maya is fashionably late, of course, sporting her new trendsetting haircut. We negotiate the bouncer with no problems (Maya's forgotten ID) and go straight up to the venue where we sit on the floor of the near empty space wondering if anyone under 40 is going to come along tonight. They don't. Good grooves played tho. Soon a shimmering red outfit takes the stage and the three piece who are Tender Prey launch into a garage inspired set. Studiously watching the bassist I'm thinking yeah I could do that. Well, quite a lot of it. The Tenders have a hit it hard drummer pounding out the beat which must be hot under that hat. Backed up by a bassist who looks like he's just come from some startup workplace who is pretty bang on with the beat (I now notice these things having found out how hard it is). Both fronted by the woman in the shimmering red sequined hot pants type thing who plays a mean grungy garage guitar and sings with enthusiasm and style. They've definitely come from Garageland but that doesn't mean they don't know how to play and their set isn't all thrash or simple rock. It gets pretty funky at time when the bass picks up and the vocals range from shouty to sweet singing. And we get a bit of chat between tunes so we know that at least the singer guitarist comes from the Welsh region of Garageland. A good start and Maya is fairly impressed I think despite still being the youngest here. By a generation.

A quick kit change and the lights dim whilst the four guys take the stage before the tumultuous (well, fairly enthusiastic) welcome for Jane Weaver. She seems to be wearing the same outfit as when I saw her at Latitude including the festival pass on her calf. To be fair the dress is great for projecting images on so no wonder she wears it a lot (see photos below). We get warmed up with a couple of ethereal space rock numbers which is the only time I'm going to mention the Hawkwind influence in this review. Although there is a lot of it in there. Last time I saw them they were missing the bassist and guitarist (stuck in traffic en route to Latitude) so it was a more minimalist set. This time it's a lot more funky with the bass and the guitarist's meanderings and solos give us a less krautrock feel and more, well, let's just say a more space rock feel. Jane plays keyboards every so often and we have a guy on knob twiddling synth duties too. After the treat of a few psychedelic numbers with shimmering guitars and synths Jane tells us she's going into a couple of slower numbers so to sidle up closer to whoever we're with. Maya takes a step away from me. The next couple of tunes really show off Jane's voice which has a great range and soars over the music and out into the hall. Someone shouts "beautiful" which isn't something I often hear yelled at gigs but he's spot on and Jane is obviously grateful to accept the compliment. After a bit more eyes closed swaying about the band go into a more electronic groove verging on out and out dance for a while getting a few of the static punters at least nodding. Must be the ageing audience but Maya and I are about the only ones moving in time to the music apart from a tall beardy bloke grooving to the left of us. We're rocking now and if this was a more mobile audience we could even be dancing. Possibly jumping up and down! Anyways the music is built up to a peak and with the projections we're zoned out and back in the day. Well I am. Maya is sort of just in the today which is where teenagers should be. Great stuff. All too soon the band leave the stage but of course we're treated to a couple of tunes for the encore one having Jane on the guitar. Then the band are off. A great gig and well worth seeing again. Maya's enjoyed it too. We make our way outside through the main pub downstairs which is packed with hipsters about Maya's age. Well, possibly a little older but at least the same generation. They don't know what they've missed.