The Sheffield Scenester

Tonight was an interesting EP launch and a first for us as it involved a compilation EP called ‘Underneath The Stairs’ with three tracks, one from Elephant keys, one from Whispering Dolls and finally one from Dan Williamson all recorded down at Fat Elephant Studios.

To open up this evening was Dan Williamson, without doubt one of our favourite solo artists around at the moment. Sheffield has quite an abundance of talented male soloists, Ian Britt and Mark Nichols are two names that immediately spring to mind, and they both have their merits…but neither hit that kitchen sink drama, or as it has been called…trailer trash blues. His stand out tracks are easily ‘Ella S D’, a delightful little melody concerning a woman who has blatantly fallen on bad times and has plunged herself into a never ending spiral of drugs to escape the reality of what life has to offer her. ‘Champions League Wednesday Nights’ is easily one of his most popular tracks as it no doubt rings true to quite a few of the audience members despite the fact that the football season is well and truly over, well at least for a couple of months. Dan’s approach to relationships may not be personified in the song ‘I Cooked Her Heart’ but it certainly is a disturbing tale nonetheless; after all this ain’t no boy meets girl and they skip off into the sunset to live happily ever after fairy tale. At face value he may seem depressing and grim, but it is done with feeling and intelligence, and for that it is easy to forgive him, plus, and this is always a plus, he does play a mean guitar that invariably gets people tapping their feet. Maybe they can empathize with some of the tracks; maybe they catch enough of the dark humour running through it that they just enjoy it anyway, either way he is one artist we’d urge you to catch at some point!

Slow Pines, a three piece from Doncaster, had the honour of following Dan, and straight away they began with drums and guitars blazing. Admittedly any band that follows an acoustic set sounds loud and fast…so maybe it was just a question of perception, but with steady indie rock riffs flying in from all angles they did a pretty good job of making their presence known. After the first song, ‘Lester’, it was possible to listen to them without being overwhelmed by the onslaught of a full band and they did in fact have quite a few catchy rhythms knocking about coupled with a strong vocal performance. For example on the song ‘Hands’, we heard a bouncing ensemble of chords rather like early Franz Ferdinand before they dropped into a more modern indie beat. This was followed by their best song of the set for me, ‘Sleep’, opening gently at first….almost ballad like, with lines like “Cry yourself to sleep my dear”….before a thrashing guitar was brought to the fore. Throw in a pleading cry on the chorus I was getting flashbacks of Radiohead’s classic stalker hit ‘Creep’, both disturbing in substance and pounding in style, it wound up quite an impressive set. Rather amusingly I asked for their set list only to find that each song had only one word for it’s title, apparently it’s so they don’t forget them!

Following that, came the Salvo….a local four piece, who opened their set with ‘Baited Breath’, a song with rolling riffs crammed in like sardines, this momentum just built and built into a truly awesome climax. Most bands are lucky to get that much energy in a set….but these guys simply played track after track like this. When one of the guitarist’s strings broke you could almost feel the sigh of disappointment at the fact that this momentum had ground to a halt, but bassist James Rodgers calmed things down a bit by talking about their songs being available on iTunes, well until someone shouted out “You’ve got a deep voice for a girl!” This broke the tension pretty well, but by now they were up and running again with the song ‘Inclination’, quickly followed by ‘Somebody Knows’ and ‘I Hear What You’re Saying’, all of which picked up their set directly where it was so brutally cut off. Rolling out thunderous riffs like this virtually guarantees that even the most reserved members of the audience are up and bouncing, it’s what makes this group such a dynamic force on the live circuit today. Everytime we see them they’re like a breath of fresh air, too many bands are just content to stand on stage and play, these guys own the stage, not only that, but they own the room and deliver an experience you’ll never forget, bloody good music as well…it has to be noted!

Now if ever there was a band that could follow that it’s The Elephant Keys, they may only be a three piece…but they pack a six piece punch when it comes to their live show. And tonight it was their EP on the line as well…or at least a third of it…but the headline of the night had to go to the fact that Breezy, their drummer had quit the band to devote himself solely to running Brezza’s and so for tonight and the foreseeable future he was to be replaced by Eric Miller, the former Dodgems and White Buffalo skin-banger. With only three practices to date they began and whilst he may not be as flamboyant as Breezy was, Eric certainly wasn’t shy when it came to beat the living cr*p out of his kit! Opening with two of their classics, ‘Nicole’ and ‘The Truth’ soon got the ball rolling and the crowd bumping along, it was just another day at the office for Tom and Phil Goodwin, but Eric, his face a study in determined concentration, kept pace with them admirably. In regards to the EP, Dan had already played his track ‘I Cooked Her Heart’ but he still joined Phil, Tom and Eric on stage to sing ‘Sebastian’, an event that is almost a given these days….maybe a sign of things to come, who knows? And with Elephant Keys performing their track ‘I Wanna Be There’ it only left Whispering Dolls who were as of yet unheard tonight. But fear not as the set reached it’s climax Danny and Joe, arrived on stage to play their contribution ‘Play With Fire’ and with the combination of these artists it was almost like watching a supergroup. Phil and Danny did their damnedest to outplay each other, Joe held centre stage on vocals, Tom and Eric backed them up with all the drums and keys they’d ever need, the crowd were just left gob-smacked!

It was one hell of an ending to one hell of a night, Outstanding music from every artist as well as some phenomenal performances all round, the room was packed, I can’t imagine anyone thinking they’d been robbed that night. Of course it will take a bit of getting used to not having Breezy’s kick drum at the back of the stage….and tonight’s show just proved what an acceptable replacement Eric actually is!

Words & Photos By Gail & Geoff Buckthorpe