Monday, July 25, 2011

Tramlines 2011 Day 3



The toll of the weekend was starting to tell, but today was my birthday so I was determined to make the most of the last day of Tramlines. We headed into town again, stopping to get some water and sun cream - essential purchases given the sunny weather. I was very grateful for my new hat to give me a bit of shade.

First up on the new music stage were The Xcerts - indie rock with a bit of a dark edge and plenty of howling feedback and creative use of noise. Good stuff, but we were in the mood for something a bit more mellow so after meeting up with a work colleague we made our way to SoYo for cold beer, cold air conditioning and some acoustic stuff from a singer-songwriter called Lupen Crook - simultaneously dark and amusing, and an accomplished guitarist too. He was followed by Neil McSweeney who packed the place to the rafters and beyond, so we made our excuses and decamped to Bears and Bungalows for chill out music (and more beer).

Back to the new music stage for the final three bands of the day - Errors (yet another Glaswegian band) provided some post rock electro with plenty of keyboard noodling and interesting noises. Good stuff. They were followed by The Ghost of a Thousand for some hardcore punk in one of their last ever performances. It took me a while to get a handle on their sound but when they played a spot on cover of 'Back in Black' it all clicked into place and I could see a clear line from heavy metal to the music they were playing. While we were waiting for the final act of the day, I got chatting to Bri Shaughnessy, the veteran lead singer of Barnsley rockers Seventh Son who was a genuinely nice bloke and also seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the music being played by bands who hadn't been born when he kicked off his career.

Rolo Tomassi had been curating the stage, choosing the bands and I think they did a superb job in bringing a wide range of music to the attention of music fans, young and old. Their closing set was a revelation to me -a mix of etherial introductions and hard core experimental metal with lead singer Eva Spence - a pop pixie with the face of an angel and the voice of Beelzebub gargling razor blades. My goodness, but they were good and an excellent way to close the weekend.

Roll on 2012!

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