A review of Thursday night, the Sixth of June, at goNORTH 2013, featuring Our Friends in America, Casual Sex, Lidh Terri Walker and Jamie Joseph.
Our Friends in America – Mad Hatters
If you’ll hear my confession first – not my kind of music. But hey, the crowd were absolutely loving it. Too heavy for me maybe but even I could detect a craft and musicality that I don’t usually associate with bands at the obese end of the musical spectrum. They had a fine rapport with the crowd, witty and engaging. They also caused a mini crowd surge by giving out some of their own records for free. The penny dropped pretty quickly; that’ll be records from their own collections (allegedly) – ‘Harry Fucking Secombe’ wailed one obviously disappointed punter. The good news – they are working hard on their first album.
Casual Sex – Hootannanny
Casual Sex are a Glasgow indie band in the tradition of say Orange Juice or Franz Ferdinand, so it’s to be expected that there will also be echoes of The Velvet Underground in the room. The lead singer has a fine voice somewhere between Lou Reed and the sharper edge of Stan Ridgeway (more Mexican Radio than Camouflage). Intense and engaging, too many bands are too easily tipped for the top, but these guys might just make it.
Lidh – Hootenanny’s
A young and certainly gifted singer songwriter from the Kingdom of Fife she has the attention of the Fence Collective – and they know a thing or two about folky talent. Lidh is certainly making waves on the folk scene. With a very watchable vulnerability, Lidh offerd a wistful, acoustic sonic treat that drifted toward Cocteau land without ever coming ashore. That’ll do nicely.
The Ironworks offered up a soul showcase for the evening – I’m bound to say the staff had been well impressed at the sound checks. And what a show. This was all about the voice (no telly reference intended), with stripped down backing and an acoustic bias. In the first instance,a ten minute set from Maxime was, in my humble opinion, ten minutes too short.
Jamie Joseph was bold enough to perform the Luther Vandross classic ‘Never Too Much’ accompanied by one acoustic guitar and absolutely nailed it. On the strength of this set Jamie is a talented singer songwriter and with a debut single under his belt (‘But You’) he has a new album out soon.
Terri Walker – why haven’t I heard of her before now – rounded off the evening. With four studio albums to her name and a host of impressive collaborations Terri Walker had a big sultry soulful voice, a big personality and a truly assured performance. Accompanied by acoustic guitar and cajon she finished a fine set by covering Adele’s ‘You Could Have Had It All’ and gave it a damn good soulful thrashing – I know which version I prefer. Any artist who sings her thanks to the audience will have me wearing the t-shirt, fabulous.
You can see our other goNORTH 2013 coverage and please if you like what we do be kind enough to sign up to our Inverness gigs mailing list.
Photos also by Roddy Mackenzie, see more below:
