Sharon Van Etten was playing 2 nights at the Brudenell and Lee & I originally had  tickets for the Sunday night…….then I went and bought Kate Rusby tickets without realising they were on the same night……but thanks to a re-tweet by Nathan at the Brudenell, I managed to swap them for 2 Sat tickets with a lovely chap called Rob Warm, who it turns out, lives round the corner and used to go to school in Prestwich about the same time I did (and was on BBC 5live this morning talking about the housing crisis around affordable homes). I’m so grateful to him because I probably would have leaned towards Kate Rusby (as I’d not seen her before) and to think I could have missed out on this…….it doesn’t bear thinking about!

First up was Sam Amidon who did a great set with some lovely banter between songs. Particularly enjoyed the story about his mate Ezra who pretended to be a twin….. He did some awsome guitar and banjo picking and had us all singing ‘Sometimes’ with smiles on our faces. Turns out he’s married to Beth Orton which means he’s related to The Jim Jones Revue! The percussion for the evening was also noteworthy – sometime drums, sometimes bass and weird synth, sometimes shaker type things on his hands….Got his ‘Lily-O’ CD which is well worth a listen.

It’s only been a few months since we last saw the SVE gang and I’m guessing they’ve toured constantly in the meantime. Do they sound jaded? Hell no! They sound phenomenal and look like they’re still having a ball. The place was packed and we bumped into the Ilkley QUIMS contingent in there. We were treated to a wonderful set with Sharons voice filling up the place. There were the usual funny introductions and horseplay – When someone shouted “I fucking love you Sharon” she started thinking out loud “I’d love that as a ring tone”

The band are in great form and the stuff from the forthcoming ‘I don’t want to let you down’ EP sounded really strong – they’re on a roll for sure. It was the solo song she did however that stood out for me. “I moved to a new apartment in New York and because we’ve been on tour so much we’re still taking things out of boxes and I found a song my  friend wrote who has now died. I’ve never played it before….I hope I get it right…still if I don’t, you won’t know”. One of the quims gang has had a very recent tragedy and when the song started with lyrics of tears being dried by the wind, it all got a bit much for Lee who let her tears flow.

Another wonderful night from team SVE – you really don’t want to miss this lot.

Bob the Chiropodist

Tonight we were treated to a masterclass in drumming, but more of that later….

When Sledge spied the poster for this gig last week, well, we just had to go didn’t we…….and so glad we did….sorry we didn’t get there in time to catch X-Ray Cat Trio – next time

First up were Dick Venom and the Terrortones. Dick stormed the stage in a long fur coat with only suspenders and boots on underneath and proceeded to go through all the moves from the Lux Interior handbook which included humping the stage to a song warning of the dangers of shagging in public. Some great tunes in there to compliment the front man antics.

The Brains are from Montreal and play punked up Rock-a-billy that had us all dancing. Great to see a double bass being slapped good and proper. Great to have a frontman with a golden voice….but the show for me was totally stolen by the best drumming I’ve ever seen – fast, furious with subtle rolls and some stick gymnastics thrown in (well, thrown up and caught without missing a beat). Sledge and I kept on looking at each other with a ‘Is he for real?!’ kind of expression on our faces. Just Fantastic!

They did a great cover of a Cure song…..probably not one you’d guess……but it sounded great as a psychobilly rock out! Considering the’d driven from Cologne today, they did a blistering set which culminated in the band coming into the audience to play. Highly entertaining – catch them if you can!

Bob the Chiropodist