Having recovered from the electric onslaught of The Law gig the night before, and having been offered the opportunity to come along tonight by the Crystal Tears guys, the chance of an acoustic gig at Droothys on a Sunday night seemed like a pleasant enough prospect - what I wasn't expecting was one of the finest electro-acoustic gigs I've been to in a long, long time - but that's exactly what ensued.
Droothys basement is down a spiral staircase from the main bar, to a dog-leg shaped room that lends itself perfectly to a more "intimate" gig setting. As I got there, a singer-songwriter guy who I didn't recognise, had just begun his set. Just as I sat down, the guy promptly moved from folk singer to semi-operatic singer, dropped his guitar on the floor, get up and stomp round the bar - still singing - going totally bananas, before returning to the seat, picking up the guitar and finishing the song only then to mutter "jesus christ" (referring, presumably, to the fact that the guitar was going wildly out of tune), then going straight into the next song, a funereal, slow-paced folk song with a clearly enunciated vocal that sounded more like it should be singing sea shanties. The third song was introduced as a "song about taxes" that had a memorable hook line to it. Such was the visual nature of the performance so far and the really mesmerising quality to his vocal, that it was only about half way through this song that I thought to myself that maybe I should actually have half an ear on exactly what he's singing about!! But the way he veers from delightlful vocal to manic operatic, was quite hypnotic, and just plain bizarre. Up next was a humorous ofering on the subject of fat pets, as a mandolin-like guitar strums away and the slightly edgy vocal delivery sounding like he's about to lose control at any minute. At the end of this song, he finally admitted defeat to the guitar's tuning, and handed it to a friend. But, undeterred, he launched into an acappella song that managed to combine opera, theatre, crowd interaction and more as what can only be described as some kind of "negro-spiritual" style of song saw the guy wandering up and down the bar to the jaw-dropped audience's delight, complemented by foot stomps on the solid floor, leaving you with the image of a soundtrack of this guy singing to footage of weary oarsmen rowing themselves to death. Then the guy grabs a stool and stomps that up and down on the floor too, for good measure, eventually ending things by crawling under one of the tables. Unreal!! For the next number, "Emily",he borrows a guitar and this delicately played and sung, typically "story-telling" track, is delivered with tenderness, tension and anguish - and that's it - all gone - leaving you wishing you could go back the following night to see him do it all over again!!
Up next was this guy's touring accompaniment in ther form of Clayton Blizzard. If you thought this were going to quieten down, then think again - he started the first song by roaming around the audience, singing and playing the guitar, and at the end of each verse, the lyric would end about the guy singing something into someone's ear, whereupon he'd go up to an audience member, and do just that. Theatre as folk, and vice-versa. Next song was called "Winning A Raffle And Losing The War" featuring that kind of hal-spoken vocal that wandered up and down the scale in parts, while a flurry of strummed guitar notes provide a quite substantial musical backdrop. Injecting passion into the singing, the song veers from verses to fast-paced spoken-word hooks as a very observational and lyrically rich composition unfolds, a song that ends by borrowing Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart" and doing some very clever things with it as regards the lyrics of his original song. "There Is No God" saw the song introduced with an initial vocal highly reminiscent of Luva Anna's Dave Webster before a gentle melody and a jaunty song with a hook, featuring well written occasionally humorous and opinionated lyrics, again with those fast-paced, brief spoken-word sections splattered throughout, before back to the cyclical melody and verse, ending with a rather "cliched" latin finale that the song really could have done without. The next one was introduced as a love song and called "You Are Not Cool And You Never Ever Will Be" - and, indeed, a love song it is, albeit a very bizarrely written one. Occasionally, the lyrics are a bit nonsensical and some of the "typical" imagery is a tad suspect in the context of the song but by and large, it's a sardonic, sarcastic, almost angry, love song - and you're left wit mpression of how scary this guy might be if ever he did a "hate" song. I think the last song - about the recession - was called "Economics 101", an acoustic rap, wrapping a protest song and a sort of quintessential English folk answer to Salt 'n' Pepa (really!!!) in terms of the way it swings and its structure. Surprisingly, it's fun, it's clever and it works. Then it wanders into a more folky section before going into a spoken-word, fast-paced rap that still swings and ends by borrowing the song "Don't Let Money Change You" by a band I cannot remember the name of, even worse as I own the single of it somewhere, and finishing to the accompaniment of the stomping feet of the audience.
Local band Crystal Tears - new to me - were up next - a trio of electric bass, electric guitar and electric piano/vocals - unusual in itself.The first track was "Dreams Of Africa" and began with the elctric piano with bass undercurrent, sounding almost "Pink Floyd-y" before the mid-high register vocal pitched in with a witstful delivery as thr guitar strums, the basss chugs and things drive forward. Suddenly there appears a chorus, memorable too, as the piano-led song unfolds with guitar as texture and bass as foundation, all very different and engaging if not, on first hearing, gripping. "A Happy Song" came across a bit like an uptempo answer to The Jayhaws "Blue" with a more wistful vocal as the piano is played quite forcefully and there's a neat 2-part harmony on the chorus on a short, but relatively sweet, song. A song with "Romance" in the title was up next, starting with an almost soundtrack-like intro on the piano with heavy, funereal chords against the throb of the bass and distant electric guitar. The mid-high range vocal stretches and lifts the song as it all slowly unfolds, led by the march of the electric piano. THe fourth song was announced as a new song, featured a more sprightly and chunkier guitar line but which failed - either by accident or design - to make its presence felt, being loud enough but just too restrained for the track, as another vocal unfolds, on the moody side of wistful
and on the anguished side of optimistic. These are all original songs, very differently written and deivered from anything else around, the largely absent nature of any hooks or choruses making it absolutely fascinating but noit as memorable as you'd like, on first hearing, but you'd certainly go back for more. So, the band came to the final number - Neil Young's "Like A Hurricane" - as you think "oh dear", only to have that thought well and truly crushed. The band open with a piano-led, bass driven approach as the electric guitar continues to be its tastefully strummed self, the pitch of the vocal giving the song a curiously different feel, the piano taking the place of the lead guitar. But then they surprise the heck out of you as they come to a lead break where the guitar suddenly breaks out as the guitarist becomes "axe hero" and, to the strains of this searing heat extended electric guitar-dominated finale, the guy wanders al over the place - on the chairs, the tables, through the bar - even getting the audience to clap along at one point - then unleashing more guitar histrionics, before collapsing to his knees on the final dying chords of a tortured electric guitar, all the while the piano and bass driving the undercurrent forward. Love it or hate it - and I loved it - you have to say that it was really striking, surprising and rather well done, with an almost tongue-in-cheek tone to the approach.
Pandu Su was up next. Pand Su is the lady that plays acoustic guitar and sings. It's also a floating line-up who, at Dundee's Doghouse consisteed of a keyboards player, but which, tonight, consisted also of the headline act, Esperi, playing drums and percussion, plus another guy on Korg keyboard and some kind of computerised gadget plus snare drum. So, on she comes, with "band", and the sound of a fully resonant Church Organ invites you through its doors, only for the drums to command your attention as an accordeon provides textural depth and then Ms Su's acoustic guitar puts the icing on the instrumental cake, while her vocal comes into play, with a short line of lyric but delivered in a rich, velvety voice. The whole thing is amazingly dramatic. The organ sound fades, then the drums while her full-sounding vocals continue to deliver short bursts of lyrics against a blissful sounding acoustic guitar. The vocal flows forward as the instrumental picture changes, with bell-like percussion nand accoustic guitar pouring notes into the air that hang suspended, build, then subside. The composition proves to be quite lengthy for an opener, but its mix of textures allied to the inventive arrangements, the exotic vocal delivery and its sheer originality, prove to be absolutely compulsive listening and decidedly hypnotic. Yet again, it changes shape, as dual vocals, a cyclical melody, the accoustic guitar chords and three-part harmonies see things out on what is one stunning opening track. For the second one, Esperi plays a kind of resonant box type of drum - the one that Rachel Anderson's percussionist uses in her band, Small Feet, Little Toes - and, set against solid acoustic guitar strumming, proves to be great foundations for a strongly emotive song that positively bites but where that still wonderfully rich vocal provides the focal point. What amounts to a recitation of the alphabet, never sounded so captivating as emotive vocal and counterpoint harmonies are just two components of the whole thing building up on waves of acoustic guitar spelndour, propelled by the percussion and vocal. The third track starts with vocal and chiming guitar set over militaristic drumming while a sudden emergence of three-part acapella vocals herald the arrival of the powerful drumming on top of the crisp acoustic guitar work, before it all drops back to the tuned percussion, vocal and guitar, as delicacy replaces force for the finale of the piece. "Eric Is Dead" was announced as the title for the fourth track, as a solid, strummed guitar intro had added to it light use of cymbals and harmonium-styled drone, proving to bequite cyclical and hypnotic. A delicate song unfolds, shaken percussion is added as the guitar strenghtens, the drums develop, 2-part harmonies add to the depth as it all rises on a wave of strengtrhening drums and the whole thing just flies ahead. Nearer the end of the track, an accordeon-like texture from the electronic wind instrument (EWI) let the tension rise only for it all to subside in layers of delicacy. The final track was a mix of nursery rhyme and lullaby - Su style - as delicate guitar, bell-like percussion, enchanting vocal and miniature bells, all build to a crescendoof biting guitar and pounding drumming, drops down, builds once more as the richly textured vocal pours out the song until it finally rises in a blaze of intensity with military drumming, chunky guitar and the EWI, only to end on just acoustic guitar and the gorgeous sound of the vocal. A truly mesmerising performance, in every way.
Esperi was also very different from anything else witnessed tonight, and equally amazing. The opening track featured his soft, warm, full-sounding vocal, almost Donovan-mewets-Nick Drake, set to a music box as he roams the bar singing, essentially, acapella. Then, for tack 2, he snaps his fingers to create a rhythm, records those few seconds onto what is some kind of electronic looping device, then loops it and what you hear is the rhythm cycled from the finger snaps. He then adds to this loop, layers of slowly pluckedd guitar, the musical box, some sort of booming percussive device, and all of this, now looped, plays over the PA and you can hear every instrument clearly. Over all this, he then sings the song, in that wondrously warm vocal, then plays the drum box thing - and loops all that too!! He then continues the song as the whole soundscape now has the feel of slow summer rain pouring down on you, as the sound of acoustic guitar adds more ringing top-end texture then gets looped as well, as does a xylophone melody and tuned mallet percussion, as the Esperi orchestra just builds and flows - it's like watching a living version of Oldfield's "Tubular Bells" being played and formed before your very eyes and ears and it's simply astonishing. The EWI is added as the whole mulit-layered, multi-textured, clearly audible assemblage, flows before your mesmerised soul - and then you realise that he's now even loopedd the vocals as you become aware that he's not actually at the mic even though he's still singing the song. The third and final track - he had to have his set cut a little as things had overrrun a tad - was a lengthy piece whereupon he took the asame approach, only this time submitted different rhythms, textures, layers and melodies, from finger snaps, music box, gently dtrummed guitar, xylophone, EWI and vocals, as soft-as-a-kiss vocal sets against rippling acoustic guitar. He plays a carefully lined-up set of tuned bells with his foot, taps the guitar body for rhythmic strength as the song and the beautiful guitar work, continue to unfold as the looping fades and the audience is captivated even more than normal, by one man, his voice and an acoustic guitar. The song travels ever onwards, and ends with more looping as all mannwer of strung, blown and hit instruments are added to the multi-layered soundscapes. Absolutely stunning!!
But that's not the whole thing - I have to congratulate every member of the audience who were there this night - they all listened with wrapt attention, joined in, applauded and not at any point, talked over or through the acts, allowing all of us to hear everything that was played and sung, throughout. This was how a largely acoustic concert should be - good on them, good on Droothys and good on all the acts performing.