Skip to main content

Awesome April music part 1: Basia Bulat returns to Leeds

Two years on from her last visit, Basia Bulat returned to Leeds touring her new album Good Advice. On Record Store Day no less (16th April). Yet another good beer venue - this time she played Headrow House. Good Advice is a bigger sounding album, in many ways, than Tall Tall Shadow, so understandably Basia wanted to tour it with a band. The efficient option, as it transpired, was to have her support band as her backing band.

The Weather Station (trio led by Tamara Lindeman) played a 30 minute set to a small and rather chilly audience (maybe Headrow House had forgotten the heating....). The Weather Station has a big-open-space instrumental sound (I definitely heard the soundscapes reminding me of looking at Ontario's landscape from the train); whilst Tamara seems to be a pretty respected songsmith, 30 minutes was too short a time to get into her lyrics. They were, however, much more engaging than the support from 2014.

Basia and backing musicians played a shorter set than in her 2014 trip. Whilst the musicianship was all excellent, with a good vibe (plenty of laughing and joking between songs) we felt that the balance was a bit off-kilter: Basia's vocals seemed a bit swamped by the instrument set-up. Maybe it was calculated for a larger space than Headrow House - I wonder if it feels odd or weird to go from playing sell-out halls in Canada (such as Toronto's Massey Hall) to playing for 100 people? 

In possession of a spangly gold cape (containing her magic powers!) Basia and co started with a selection of big-sounding songs: Let Me In, Long Goodbye, La La Lie, Heart Of My Own, Five/Four. 

The second section of the set was my favourite: Basia along with her autoharp. The treats in store were: Paris or Amsterdam, Gold Rush, In The Night. In comparison to the foot-stomping album version of Gold Rush, the solo autoharp rendition was amazing - I was almost in tears. None on this evening, but apparently In The Night had been the impetus for the only mosh pit so far a a Basia Bulat gig....

Rounding off the evening we heard Good Advice, Wires, Someday Soon and Infamous. No encore - but having heard a few quips about the excellence of the NHS, there were a few illnesses and injuries.

A pretty fun evening, but for all the magic capes, this show didn't have the spellbinding-ness of Basia's 2014 solo show. 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Au quatrieme fois..

A jaunt en masse down to the Coal Exchange last night (23rd) to see The Subways excel again. For once we weren't massively early (in some ways to avoid the queues of teenagers) so arrived part way through the first support band. They are called Wry, from Brazil even! They were decent and will probably merit listening to further. Best option the ubiquitous myspace . Eagerly anticipated the main support, The Sunshine Underground, of whom I'd heard good words... They more than lived up to their expectations, with my only real niggle about their sound... whether it was the singer's style or sound mix I'm not sure but their show was at parts ear-splitting - explains my slight deafness today! Otherwise excellent, not an easy band to categorise, but my impressions were somewhere between Alabama 3 and the Killers' Hot Fuss album; dancing music too. Well worth going to see - just take earplugs! (or in my case, actually go out and buy some). I believe one can listen to the...
Post a Comment
Read more

4 and 5

Busy weekend. Number 4 was the 2nd Innercity Pirates night at Clwb Ifor Bach, spread the word to another friend so a highly successful evening! Again, Red City were the (only) support, who were still underwhelming and may even have got worse! Luckily a short set. The main Pirates set was much more polished than the last one, they have been practicing!! Only mishap this time when an overenthusiastic fan accidentally stood on a connector! Quite a different set, this time almost totally from the 3 recent EPs with the only oldies Whisper The Fear, and 'that song' from last time - which is called The Little Pills We Love. For the set list, simply check out the track listings for the 3 EPs on their website ! Number 5 entailed a visit to Coal Exchange to see Mogwai . Luckily the buses were back to normal - well normal for a Sunday ie nothing late at night! Slightly more interesting support band, The Magnificents (sound: a mix between Mogwai, Syntax and The Killers ), although I did ...
Post a Comment
Read more

From Black Rose to Buena Vista

Two very different but equally impressive live experiences this last weekend. First up, our long overdue homage to the late, great Phil Lynott as Limehouse Lizzy returned to the Point on Friday 2nd March. Certainly on form (and not just lead singer Wayne Ellis, mmmm!) After a late doors, the band came on for a 2 hour set. They started off with Jailbreak (with added pyro), the rest of the main set comprising known songs like Dancing In The Moonlight, Warrior, Emerald, Johnny the Fox, Are You Ready, Killer On The Loose, Cold Sweat, Do Anything You Want To, Out In The Fields, Cowboy Song, Rosalie, The Boys Are Back In Town plus at least 1 early track. The encore included 1 verse/1 chorus from Sarah, Black Rose, Whisky In The Jar and another track. Excellent atmosphere, the place was sold out. The boys are back at the Point in December. Next on to crowd pleasers of a very different sort. M and I managed to get tickets for the sold-out Buena Vista Social Club show at Wales Millennium Centr...
Post a Comment
Read more