Yesterday I noticed on very short notice that an indie band known as Captian were playing at the Barfly. So on a spur of the moment thing I booked a ticket and went along, on what was the hotest day of the year so far. I saw Captain support Delays back in March and was impressed by the melodic tunes, their second single and rather anthemic “broke” has been on my summer playlist for a while.
I hadn’t been to the barfly before and while being nothing to write home about it was more than spacious for this gig. I don’t like it when the support bands are very different from the main act, it tends to make the evening feel broken, but that’s what happened. The first act although having roots in Brum, wasn’t really my kind of thing, they had borrowed a member of the Guillemots and a few members of the crowd liked them. The second support from my perspective were better.
Captain took to the stage just shy of 10pm and were really cool, the set was energetic and they played a few of the recent releases as well as telling us that their debut album is out early to mid August. Full of melody and having catchy tunes, the album should be something to look forward to. The band drew in a decent sized crowd, considering how nice an evening it must have been to be outside.
It’s not often you get treated to a showcase of very talented bands and artists for £3, but that’s what just happened. Last night I took the opportunity to see Julia Harris play live at a showcase of music at Worcesters, Marrs Bar, organised by the recording studio, ffg.
There was a real mix of music on offer, a guy called Sam Isaac was up first, who really does remind me and others of the front man of Nizlopi. Second up was Girl Friday who played piano and guitar driven indie almost verging on the brink of pop. They were followed by Julia, who captivated the audience from start to finish with not only a stunning acapella version of one of her tracks but also a storming gutsy and powerful performance which threatened to raise the roof. Julia’s influences clearly showing through so much so, in her first track I thought, well here’s Ani Difranco in the room right now, stunning. Headliners Helzuki headlined the night as winners of the showcase competiton, with very a dramatic and varied set.
Julia Direct to the fans
For some months now I’ve been following Julia’s progress checking in and podcasting a couple of her melodic acoustic tracks and it was really cool to meet and chat with her. From what I saw on stage there’s every reason to suggest that she’ll carry on winning over audiences and gaining new fans. Her tracks are now availible on iTunes and HMV Digital and there is a video blog on myspace where folks can check in and stay upto date. It’s nice that as a listener you can pull out of the mainstream and really interact with musicians and support them regardless of location and I believe the bands who are friendly towards the Internet are in for big things.
A well organised and executed night of music and the bands had travelled far and really put a lot of effort in, it seemed like a lot of the audience were in some way connected to the venue or were in a band and so on, but maybe that’s how it starts, so below are the links to the various sites involved. You’ll hear Julia on my podcast soon enough.
