The Sheffield Scenester

The combination of intimate venue, fairy lights, low hanging light bulbs and friendly atmosphere set my hopes high for the launch of Low Duo’s The EP of Truth and Regret. I’d never been upstairs in The Great Gatsby before, and before arriving had been a bit sceptical about the size of the venue, but the room filled up nicely and made for a decent ambience.

First on was James Ewan Tait, his image effortlessly indie with a winning combination of punned Sonic Youth t-shirt and red woolly cardigan. His set was very nice vocally; I thought he sounded like a cross between Devendra Banhart, Jack Penate and The Tallest Man On Earth. His stage presence was interesting, and he managed to keep the full attention of the crowd through just standing still, eyes closed. Although I immediately liked him, it wasn’t until the third song that I really fell into ‘fan’ status. An endearing microphone struggle was followed by ‘The Song for a Girl Who Hates The Beatles.’ I let out a ‘heh’ at the song title and really enjoyed the lyrics; they perfectly captured the angst of a teenage breakup. His oldest song ‘Plasticine’ was sleepy and relaxing, the soft chords fitting well with the lighting and James Ewan Tait’s effortless stage presence. He then picked up the pace with Epilogue, the Devendra Banhart undertones becoming Devendra Banhart overtones. It was a purposefully short song and the instrumental reminded me a bit of Mumford and Sons, only without the repetitiveness.

The next couple of songs were consistently good, his voice really did serve him well; I really liked the altering volume thing he has going on, it was interesting. He plugged his music and adlibbed, then set off on ‘Northern Rail,’ treating us with another catchy and well delivered tune. I really like the lyrics of this and ‘Boxing Day,’ which was more folksy and upbeat, as they were relatable and easy to follow, but it was ‘A Portrait’ that really caught my lyrical attention. The song spoke about a drawing of a girl, half done because ‘half of her was more than enough,’ and was excellently delivered with slow, powerful chords and a soulful vocal performance. Tait finished his set with a memorable rendition of ‘Jodie’, and it’s safe to say I was suitably impressed.

Next up was Nottingham born Dan Williamson. He was pleasantly introduced, ‘this is Dan, monkey face’, by Leigh of Low Duo, and if I’m honest, the first thing I said when he took his place on stage was ‘cool’. Stylishly sporting a blazer, winklepickers and Takamine guitar, Dan Williamson is a dead ringer for both Liam Fray of The Courteeners and Kasabian’s Tom Meighan. He began his set with powerful vocals, a folksy guitar sound and good eye contact with the crowd. His set was well ordered and he managed to interestingly combine that folksy guitar with the British alternative indie sound. His second song was ‘I cooked her heart,’ which had a decent crowd reaction and got my foot tapping along. His sound filled the room and though I was disgustingly close to the speakers, I felt as though he’d sound the same from a mile away. The fourth song was ‘A Kiss,’ introduced as ‘a little finger picking one.’ Although a bit weak lyrically, I really enjoyed the chord progression – the rhythm and power chords were memorable and his vocals were again very good. ‘How to Howl’ was just as catchy and pleasant to listen to as his other songs, but I felt like he was getting a bit samey at this point. I really like his sound...but I don’t think I could easily distinguish between a lot of the songs in his set. The set was drawing to a close, with Williamson telling the crowd that it was sadly his last gig in a while, and he was ‘running off to the zoo to be a monkey.’ His final song, ‘Champions League Wednesday Nights’ was touchingly dedicated to his dad and was probably my favourite of the whole set. The lyrics were a relatable, touching insight into working class life and was musically very good. All in all, I felt that Dan Williamson was a very talented musician. He has a cracking voice, he's a great guitarist on a lot of levels, and the bottle of Carlsberg that had made it onstage with him just adds to his Northern Ruffian image.

The room was filling up nicely in time for Low Duo’s performance and I was really enjoying the mellow Bon Iver/Band of Horses-esque in-between-bands-music. Low Duo were met with a warm reception from the crowd, and kicked off their set with the first song from their first EP, ’15 years.’ I’d given Low Duo a bit of a listen before the gig, and it struck me how close their live sound was to the record. Just a single guitar and single vocalist, both Low Duo’s image and minimalist sound made them very interesting and kooky. Adam Greenwood is an excellent musician and was enthralling to watch, and so clever! Leigh Greenwood was just as strikingly talented. His stage presence was delightfully quirky; he moved like the original marionette Bill and Ben puppets. The first song they played from their new EP was ‘Ambulance.’ Excellently performed, it was very cleverly experimental with an interesting melody, Leigh’s vocal range being reminiscent of Thom Yorke.

Next they explained how they always try and have something on their EP's that’s a bit unusual, hence why the next track in the set, ‘Secret Matters of the Heart’ was performed with just a bass guitar and vocals. I really, really liked this. The strong bass line really complemented the vocals, the lyrics were interesting and the chorus was catchy in a droney, whiney way (that IS a compliment, think Julian Casablancas!). Leigh told the crowd a funny anecdote about bumping into Pete Doherty at their first ever gig at a fetish club in London before launching into ‘Waltz With Her’ from their new EP. This and the following ‘House on the Hill’ were again very interesting and experimental. Their next song, ‘Like A Fly’ was very nice. The soft guitar and gentle lyrics worked really well with the room’s lighting and was very relaxing. Low Duo then performed their first ever cover song, ‘The Rat’ by The Walkmen. The pair really put their all into the song for an effective outcome. What was lost in instruments was made up for in originality, and Leigh’s awkward dancing just added to the quality of performance. Before their last song, they explained that this was the first gig they’d ever put on themselves and thanked everyone for coming. They were polite and friendly and left the crowd nodding in appreciation for a great gig.
I caught up with Low Duo afterwards...

SS: So you two are brothers right?

Adam: Right.

SS: So how did you start the band then, as a hobby?

Leigh: Um, we started off as a band, we were in bands before this and then basically what happened was the band sort of broke up and we just basically didn’t want to teach people the same songs again and again, so literally just decided to do this.
Adam: Yeah, we had a couple of gigs booked with our old band and it all sort of fell apart but we thought we don’t want to stop ‘cause these are good gigs and we still want to do something, so we had to come up with a bit of a set – we wrote some new songs and made a set that worked. We had a couple of good reactions from those gigs, and we weren’t actually thinking long term at that point and weren’t thinking that’s how it might be, but people did get into it.
Leigh: Yeah we tried to just do it as a, yeah, as Adam says, initially a short term thing but we got a good reaction and decided to just go with it. People were saying ‘you’ve got a unique sound’ and ‘it’s different’ and ‘we’ve not heard stuff like this before,’ so we just carried on.

SS: Cool, okay who would you say were your major influences then?

Leigh: Um, I think we’ve got to the point really now where we don’t have major influences, we have bands that we like – I think we’re into bands more than we are into acousticy and folk people – we’re not particularly into that sort of music...
Adam: Well it’s not that we’re not into it, I do LIKE that, but I don’t think it would come through in the way we present our music. We’d never think ‘oh that sounds like that’, we kind of want it to be... probably more interesting musically than that...if that makes sense? That sounds a bit harsh....but I didn’t mean that kind of thing... more contemporary I guess. Yeah bands, I mean we’re into new bands and the obvious ones like The Smiths, The Velvet Underground, then people like The Strokes, The Libertines and all that kind of stuff as well, that kind of punky sound which we kind of stuck with.

SS: So what’s your favourite musical moment so far?

Leigh: I think music in the gardens.
Adam: Yeah I mean we were the main support to a world renowned jazz act, Courtney Pine at this outdoor music festival – it’s just the dream, isn’t it? To see 3,000 people, play and get a good reaction.
Leigh: Yeah that and of course winning Guardian New Band of the Day, just nice to see yourselves being taken a bit more seriously you know?

SS: Yeah definitely, so what’s your worst?

Adam: Not many to be fair, I mean there were the days when we had no real fan base and would just play at really noisy venues, you just felt like you couldn’t be heard or people weren’t listening.
Leigh: Yeah, we’d be playing and there’d be a massive student pub crawl or something, it’s just nicer to know people are there to listen rather than being background noise.

SS: What’s the weirdest thing that’s ever happened to you at a gig?

Leigh: Oh, haha, probably the fetish gig in London...we were talking about it earlier
Adam: Yeah I mean you had all sorts of people there, it was mental, people dressed up crazily, there’s a youtube video I think if you search around a bit.

SS: Nice! So finally, if you could have any super power, what would it be?

Adam: Ooh good question...
Leigh: I think teleportation, I’d love to be able to just get from one place to another, just click my fingers and I’m there. Especially in this cold, would be so handy, and I’d save loads on taxi fare too!
Adam: Erm, I think probably the obvious one, flying. Again with getting from one place to another, it would make things easier.
Leigh: I’d still get there much faster than you though, transportation is quicker than flying.
Adam: Oh yeah...

SS: I reckon flying would be more fun though

Adam: Exactly yeah!

SS: Ok well it was nice chatting with you, I really enjoyed your set and hope to see you again!

Adam: Thanks, good luck!
Leigh: Thanks, bye!

Review & Interview by Hannah O'Brien
Photos by Victoria Butterworth