A wet, dreary night in
Effort rewarded straight away with two guys known as
Lots of turning of dials, pressing of buttons, sliding up and down of levers (I am sure there are technical terms for all that) which produced a quite delightful sound experience. Eerie, industrial and angelic soundscapes. The band’s debut ep is now available here
Next up were Xavier and Rachel Watkins from local legends Fuzzy Lights. C Joynes was supposed to play but had to pull out due to an arm injury. Having never seen C Joynes before I sat there thinking that was who I was watching. Further investigation reveals that C Joynes is a man and Rachel obviously isn’t…just put it down to my old age!
ANYWAY, Rachel has a lovely voice and added violin to Xavier’s atmospheric guitar during the thirty minute set. There was a moment where the mic failed and an innovation at that point might perhaps have been to fade the guitar and for Rachel to harmonise naturally. She has the voice and the tiny church was a perfect venue. Another ambient set of rich enjoyment however.
Lastly the 12-string guitar brilliance of James Blackshaw. This is a pretty seismic shift in styles from the rest of the evening and it is nice to bask in the amazing guitar sounds and dexterity of James’ playing.
A twelve string guitar takes a lot of playing and a lot of tuning (especially with a “split neck”) and James tackles all this with care and attention. The re-tuning really becomes part of the show. Most compositions were from the new album,
'Love Is The Plan, The Plan Is Death' and the playing was amazing.
In the end it was a disappointingly short set of around 40 minutes, but I presume it must be energy-sapping playing this particular instrument and there would have been a curfew anyway.
Back out into the rain and hopeful that it’s not to long before someone else plays this lovely church again. I guess we could always go on a Sunday!
Pete
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