Listen With Monger curates Blogtober 2017 feat. Bare Hunter
+ The Malthusian Trap + Mux + Lots Holloway + Paul Armer @ The Finsbury, London
– 22/10/2017
For the second year in a row,
this humble blogger was invited to London town to curate one of the 31 nights
of Blogtober as part of a season given over to letting writers out from behind
their laptops and blinking in to the dusky evening. So off to the ‘big city’ I
went with nothing more than a clutch of musicians and some dreams that have yet
to be shattered.
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| Paul Armer |
For those that don’t know the
Finsbury in Manor House, it is a bare but stylish venue with a pub at the front and a proper venue out back with an enviable lighting rig and over-excitable smoke machine which makes for a great atmosphere and great photographic opportunities. Up first in these auspicious surrounds is Cornish troubadour Paul Armer and, dressed all in black
with just a guitar and a harmonica, you can see that there is a sense of
business about this young man. As the music filters out in to the pub and the
crowd begins to swell, Armer’s impassioned vocals and choppy, rhythmic guitar
playing soon wins over hearts, minds and ears. As he moves easily through his
set of mostly original tunes, the voices of Bob Dylan, Frank Turner and Billy
Bragg chime out through this young pretender mixing blues, folk, protest songs
and broken hearts together in one deliciously dark soup. This might have been
Armer’s first gig in London but judging by the prolonged applause and the glint
in his eye, I very much doubt it will be his last.
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| Lots Holloway |
Now, I have to admit, when I
picked Lots Holloway for this show I
did it under the auspices that she would be playing a solo acoustic slot and
that she was a talented but still emerging singer-songwriter. When Holloway
took to the stage with a small but perfectly formed band and some razor sharp
songs to perform in front of a small army of supporters then all my foolish
misconceptions were blown away. Shooting from the hip from the very start with recent
single ‘Stay a Little Longer’, Holloway captivates with her hypnotic
performance, striking alt-pop vocals and energetic performance. Throwing in a
pin-point accurate cover of 90s classic ‘Zombie’ by the Cranberries, Holloway
shows just how natural a world-wide hit feels in among her own compositions
during a 30-minute performance that pleases her current fan base and wins her
yet more followers.
There’s something exciting about
a band that divides opinion and MUX are
one of those bands so I
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| Mux |
couldn’t wait to introduce them to the huddled masses
and wait for Marmite to take effect. As the unassuming duo Tiz and Jonas take
to the stage and hunch over their respective collections of equipment there is
a sense of anticipation in the air and then it hits you. Hard. The rhythmic
power combined with the Jazz tinged electro melodies feels like merging the
precision of engineering with the confusion of wizardry. Imagine Hot Chip and
Deadmau5 being produced by the spirit of Zappa, encouraging them to ignore time
signatures and the rules of song writing, and you’re in the right ball park but
they aren’t playing ball. Some love, some hate and a whole lot of noise – Lord John
Peel would have loved them and I certainly do.
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| The Malthusian Trap |
The Malthusian Trap arrived at the Finsbury fresh from a short tour
of Germany (I say fresh, that’s pushing the definition to its limits) and ready
to celebrate like some kind of a homecoming. Within minutes of hitting the
stage, the Plymouth based trio had the crowd bobbing and grooving to their
rhythm and I heard an audible ‘wow’ followed by ‘I feel like a teenager again’
from someone who definitely wasn’t a teenager. Hitting a high note early with
the excellent ‘Lancashire Hill’, the baggy vibes were taken to a new level with
the mesmerising beats and three guys clearly feeling every beat, note and word
of their music which only makes you want to get involved even more. By the time
frontman Damon Foster loses his cagoule under the heat of that lighting rig we
all know there’s a party going on and it’s fuelled by a week of drinking das
gravy.
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| Bare Hunter |
And so, with a feeling of
euphoria not remotely connected to a few free cans of Oranjeboom, I took on the slightly unnerving task of introducing Bare
Hunter, a band that look like they’ve just finished a month long shot out
at the Alamo and now they’re ready to rock. Taking the blues fuelled energy of
the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and the Jim Jones Revue, Bare Hunter give
things a reboot and mix in some dirty beats to tip everyone over the edge. A
sweat inducing and compelling live show flies by in a blur of moustaches, riffs
and flailing drums with songs like the storming ‘Dry Rot’ and ‘Kilimanjaro’
being the highlights of a seamless set. Like waking up on a roller-coaster, Bare
Hunter are exhilarating, joyous, disorientating and confusing which is just
what you want out of your headline act, isn’t it?
So that’s it for another year. Listen With Monger slips away from London back to the safety and comfort of my
Cornish beach hideaway safe in the knowledge that I came, saw and showed people
something new, something exciting and something to believe in. See you next
year? Maybe, just maybe.
More information:
Bare Hunter: https://www.facebook.com/barehuntermusic/
The Malthusian Trap: https://www.facebook.com/malthusiantrap/
Lots Holloway: https://www.facebook.com/lotshollowayofficial/
Paul Armer: https://www.facebook.com/paularmermusic/
Lost in the Manor: https://www.facebook.com/lostinthemanor/
The Finsbury: https://www.facebook.com/thefinsbury/