There aren’t many people around when I arrive, most people are sitting by what I’m given to understand is the printmaking workshop.
I get a drink and take the last seat at the table.
Something like a printmaking station is a really nice thing to have at a gig.
It’s easier to get talking over a shared creative goal, which some people are better at than others, than it is going up to strangers at tables or at the bar and asking them if they can help you drink your drink, or if you can look at their drinks.
It turns out to be the bassist from Vinegar who gives me most of my instruction – Vinegar and SLONK are from Bristol, it seems.
SLONK slinks onto the stage, unbeknownst to me; I was happy to catch them – having listened to no less than one song online before the gig – but I was unhappy to get up from printmaking when the crowd made for the floor.
I really enjoyed SLONK; the gig was quiet and the venue small.
I felt weird at the prospect of trying to manoeuvre myself into good photographer positions so as to take photos of the performance – a feeling that I shared with Chrissy Barnacle, who graciously offered to move slightly forward so as to be another head in the crowd for a photo from where I was standing.
Chrissy’s insightfulness is unfortunately not enough to make me a good photographer, but I appreciate it nonetheless.
SLONK apologise a number of times for the tuning being out, or for it sounding weird; I don’t know much about tuning but it sounded great, which the crowd were quick to remind of.
SLONK seems to be tuned to a frequency between everything’s-alright-and-a-bit-of-a-laugh-indie, and nothing’s-alright-it’s-falling-apart-emo; the songs are wonderfully emotional but not overbearing and are delivered very well live, in a passionate performance.
Having listened to more SLONK since seeing SLONK I’ve realised just how different the solo performance is to the band on record, regardless both iterations are very enjoyable.
After SLONK, a coffee and a little bit more printmaking Chrissy Barnacle comes on stage.
I’ve seen this act a lot over the past year, each time, the amount of talking that Barnacle does as well as the size and scope of the vocals are well catered to the environment.
The songs don’t get old and the discourse that surrounds them is always funny and endearing; Barnacle is an act worth seeing again and again – for the sake of brevity, I refer the interested reader to the vast annals of superlative things I’ve said about Barnacle on this site in the past.
Having already explained to the artist that I felt weird taking photos, it would feel weird taking photos, so I don’t.
Behind the bar in the venue there is a walkway into where they must keep the fusion reactor – or hadron collider; I couldn’t hear it throughout SLONK’s set but during the airy breathlessness between Barnacle’s notes it was more annoying.
Vinegar don’t waste much time getting on stage, just long enough to get changed into some exceedingly comfortable looking clothing and to let me connect with more people over print-making – this time it is I who is the expert and they that have never made a print in their lives.
Vinegar play a number of very friendly songs; it’s not that their music isn’t without bite or surprise, but more that their set doesn’t seem to be taking anything too seriously or from too gloomy a disposition.
The band moves well between seeming tight and short form, and loose and long form.
Their music seems like a loose collection of works by a number of talented and conscientious musicians.
In this, they are a lovely band to listen to.
None of their songs have as particularly identifiable hooks as the likes of SLONK and Chrissy Barnacle, but their flair is in the musicianship.
I’d never heard of Vinegar or SLONK before I decided to go to this gig, I was only really interested in catching Chrissy Barnacle.
Entry was a fiver, I learned how to make prints and I got to hear two bands from Bristol whom I would have maybe never heard of otherwise.
It was good to get a glimpse into the music and the voices of that region, there doesn’t seem to me to be a lot of acts around here like SLONK and Vinegar, not to say that they are better or worse, but they are good.
Words: Paul Aitken
