@alpaca.presents by Brandon van der Berg @vdb.brandon The sound engineer for the night was @luxtonluxtonluxton
Four acts held a beautifully immersive and passionate entanglement with love and heartbreak. The room fired with support and encouragement and the PA shot back the refined fantasia of defined musicianship. Each of these bands did an amazing job of setting each other up and tearing the stage apart with their vision and art. Read about each act below. Nora She stands on the edge of the stage like it’s a riverbank. Watching her step but content within its boundary. The subtle dissonance assured by the piano has flawlessness; a stoic beauty underneath the vocal like I’ve been baked into the ‘The Secret Life of Walter Mitty’ soundtrack. The drama of it all, flavouring Nora’s hooks with simplistic grace. One thing I rarely see that I found subtly in the drummer’s performance was an attentive presence, calmly watchful over the other musicians on stage and giving everything the pro polish of Mr Muscle’s ‘Streak Free Shine’ TM. A fantastic rhythm section only drawing attention to themselves when you are impressed. The room filled within the space of me looking down and up briefly. The warm air filling in the gaps between audience members crammed comfortably upright with sophisticated attention. Despite what I think could be a more refined dynamic at times, the drum fills hold you and the rises that do happen are impactful and moving, the stringed flow and cascade of tasteful bass notes do a great job of raising your eyebrow and catching you rightly. Adele is not a shy comparison to the timbre and technicality of the vocals and songwriting. A stunning assault of applause provoked by a finale of sincere acknowledgement and the delicate realisation of heartbreak. For Fans Of Adele and Pheobe Bridgers. Find her on Instagram. Jamie Yost Stylish, aesthetically pure and dazzlingly immersive. The outstandingly in-tune and fantastically textured falsetto of the frontman was rather impressive. Together, two similar guitarists stand and sit oppositely. The singer’s pickguard shimmering co-ordinates a certain cleanliness onstage over the pop-ish vocal tone as wavey hooks flutter over the top of a harmonic reverb filling the corners of the room, the thick electronic snare sound fits abrasively against the smooth popular fissure of the ambient ringing. “Some of my singles are out already, you can find them on all the places you find stuff” You can really lose yourself in the sincerity invented alongside the subtle vocal tremolo, indenting its timbre through the shared emotional immersion of the room; a modernised blur over the post-indie mellow, shooting out waves of substantial tension and consuming weight. I know it’s a small detail, but from the way they position and pose as they set themselves on stage to the way they hold themselves as they perform it is just really cool. There is an element of visual depth and unspoken mystery that makes this enticing and authentic naturally making the funny, natural fronting feel funny and natural, funnily enough. For Fans Of Sea Girls and Pale Waves. Find them on Instagram or Spotify RV With a little social grace, the baritone elements of David Albarn fire at you from beneath a heavy northern accent. The gentle swell in his vocal is beautifully special. The stoic pizazz of Lindsey Buckingham, the love-lorn sincerity of Stevie Nicks and the full timbre of Jeff Buckley. The delicate symbolism in his lyricism imprints a stillness in your form found only in between shock and envy, lying in that beam of melodic hysteria I felt bolstered but frozen. Watching him feels incredibly natural and inoffensively pure; the surrealism in his focus rightly deserving of our unshaken attention. Just, wow. “Movement, we keep getting movement.” The way he cheeks at the audience is relaxing. Conversational humility dedicated to entertaining and informing consistently and coherently puts you at ease so that you can laugh freely at his natural wit and humour. It feels like you’re on a first date that’s going really well. There is a total embrace of gentleness approached calmly but authoritatively. It’s never too nice which I can demonstrate by describing a wholly moving finale succeeded by a swift but sternly grateful “Sound. Cheers, yeah”. RV is forming a full band soon, go and experience this. For Fans Of Jeff Buckley and Fleetwood Mac. Find him on Instagram or Spotify Izzie Auty-Dawe The grandeur of drama and nostalgia softened into hooks and subtle dissonance. There is a full-bodied whistle backing the vocal. The rises and falls in the melody hint at the playful empathy behind Dodie and Ed Sheeran and there is a closeness in her performance that feels hard to break. Between melancholic cinema in the guitar, those rising octaves and a sleepy confidence that warms her vocal embellishments and cuts through the strings like a smooth buzz, it’s hard not to grapple with the desire for more and the set’s pressing duration. When she intends it to, there is an undeniable ability to withhold all the happiness from the room, shocking you into a rather upsetting confrontation. The “What was I made for” – Billie Eilish cover was fantastic. God, how good was that film?! The shy charisma of early pop stars, brushing off small mistakes in the songs as if they were rehearsed into comical gimmicks, is very fluid. To see Izzie invite RV onstage for a song to play guitar showed me how much I want to see this with a full band. It uplifts the arrangement nicely but since this set was also followed by a solo artist, the change in dynamic and arrangement wasn’t easily noticeable compared to the first full band and you could really enjoy the experience for what it was. Sincerely personal and delivered with the accepting smile of brave endearment. To deeply thank the crowd for attending the Headline show, which she described as a sincere dream since the start of university, “Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. You’ve made my dream come true”. To that, the crowd cheered back. Probably the longest ovation I’ve seen so far. For Fans Of Ed Sheeran and Dodie. Find her on Instagram or Spotify
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