Original bands, original music from Lincoln & Beyond

Tim Vantol + Giles + James Hull + Adam Bilboa + Robbo

Thursday, 29 July 2010

The Horse & Groom

25th July 2009

Photos & Review by Pete

To top off a glorious summer's day there was an impressive array of hot and happening live music tonight spread all the way across town. At the heart of it the Bivouac had Klaus Says Buy The Record downstairs at SCY, while over at The Jolly Brewer it was Day Two of Webstock with Schlinky Pinky in the full-on mix and over on the west side of the city there was a night of international acoustic punk for a recession-defying two quid at the Horse and Groom. Incentive enough to attract fifty or so music fans to give it a go if they weren't convinced already. I think most of them were, actually. As a neutral it turned out to be well worth the meagre outlay, if only for the opening set and the final, glorious descent in anarchy. As a bonus it turns out I'd nailed the dress-code which was being skinny, wearing a sweaty tee and/or plaid shirt. (Admittedly I had a fail with my lack of beard, tattoos or flat cap which were all compulsory on the night. Except for with the summery punk girls, who were more into cardigans and short skirts.) Purely on health and safety ground as it turned out it should have been made more clear on the flyer that skater pads and BMX helmets were more essential.

First up was Robbo with big hearted, proudly delivered songs diamond encrusted with real thoughtfulness and emotion. This was neurosis-free, working class masculinity magnificent with unaffected honesty and refreshingly free of any taint of that music industry artifice that gets everywhere these days. Yeah, this was a remarkably unembittered working class sound and a series of inspiring songs with subtle lyrics that cheered the soul rather than eroded and fatigued it with phoneyness. His eyes closed, singing full-voiced to the heavens of life-lessons learned it was also happily devoid both of self-pity or any form of egotisticalness. His timeless songs and performance engaged at many levels and pretty soon his mates were singing along in a warm and shouty (attempt at) backing harmony. This was a set that was over way too soon. Quality.

After 20 mins imbibing time Adam Bilboa (lead guitarist with local punk band Frontline) set about persuading everybody back in from the beer garden. He wasn't shy about it and soon had enough up front to set his big six string acoustic booming and let fly. I have to say I felt the big folksy chords smothered somewhat the sharp edges of his vocal and lyrics, making me wonder if he'd have sounded more full-throttle with a hard-bodied electric instead. His early-Springsteen cover was pretty good in pitch and feeling if needing more nerve to re-interpret to really justify inclusion. But this was deffo the guy you'd want to noise-up a party as he was enjoying himself and was more than happy to both share the microphone and encourage the first human pyramid of young guys that formed and collapsed in front of him.

Recent graduate James Hall immediately got far more bite out of his guitar as he also didn't hold back from flat out yelling what he had to say. Despite the uncertainty in his life right now - looking for a job - (or maybe because of it) - there was an abandoned, reckless quality to his performance, full of pleasure in its delivery. His following were messing about but nothing seemed to worry him apart from a voice threatening to give way under the level of abuse. Glittering-faced - with maybe something more than just natural adrenaline and summer evening well-being - this was a bit inconsequential but certainly enjoyable stuff.

All the way from Amsterdam came Tim Vantol, playing only the second night of his UK tour. Originally from Sweden Tim has clearly assimilated the Brit punk ethos into his material, enough to cope well with the escalating foolishness around him as the crowd celebrated his set. Perhaps they felt challenged by his mentioning that Peterborough had been mental the previous night. His material actually was less impressive live than on his Myspace page which was a bit of a shame but may be due to the fact it is early days yet for him on the road here and he needs to hit his stride. As it was there was something cautious, distracted about him that suggested either some nerves or a slight lack of commitment - despite his assurance that being on the road was his dream. The biggest human pyramid of the night was achieved on his watch which says something though. It all then spilled onto, into and through the rest of Tim's set, perhaps much to his well disguised dismay. This took on maximum surrealness when he was surrounded by a ring of men holding hands doing a ring-a-ring-o'roses around him. (Indie crowds are hopelessly unimaginative in comparison to this kind of thing.) For sure Peterborough would have had to have come up with something pretty anarchic and special to have outdone this. I admit I am curious.

Confusingly and without a pause post-headliner support then took up playing, Giles, and it was not easy to make sense of it let alone take command. The vibe was getting confused as people spilled about. Despite lively effort the vocal was cracking as it quickly aimed for the high notes to get attention and it proved an impossible task.

Some more photos at www.shinephoto.plus.com website.

Band Websites:

Tim Vantol
Bilboa

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