PrettyInScarlett

Another trip to Barfly on 15th April. Not quite a complete random gig; we chose The Crookes as the band members are/were all students in Sheffield (my old university haunt) & the band is named after the city suburb. Something of an oblique reminiscence, then. They've also been on 6 Music recently. Thankfully, it was one of those period nights where the support bands were at least as good as (possibly better than) the headline act. Toy Horses and Zenyth completed Thursdays lineup. Toy Horses were fun and quite infective. Very enjoyable and maybe even the highlight of the night. Zenyth were more in the South Wales rock mode, in my ears quite obviously influenced by Stereophonics etc (the list of influences on their myspace is also quite telling) but not disturbingly so. They weren't as exciting as Toy Horses but still an enjoyable set. The Crookes, for all the 'great new band' hype, were again ok but not an awful lot better. Someone needs to teach them onstage bante...

Now for something quite different. Tuesday 13th we went to see Piano circus at Cardiff University School of Music . I was going to say 'new' but turns out the group (ensemble doesn't quite seem to fit) formed in 1989. Piano circus , who according to their website are named after the Latin for circle, perform works for 6 keyboards/pianos and have developed a varied repertoire (which is also listed in full online). One of the reasons for going (apart from pure curiosity) was to try out contemporary compositions. The set list comprised: Erkki-Sven Tüür-Transmission (2006), Conlon Nancarrow- Study No. 5 and Study No. 26, Colin Riley- Recast, Steve Reich Six Pianos, David Lang- Face So Pale (1992) and Lynne Plowman- Hall of Mirrors (2007). Lynne Plowman was in the audience & briefly introduced Hall of Mirrors as sampling parts of lots of other classical piano works (anything from 1 bar to a more recognisable theme) & threading them together. In terms of the works them...