This was my first time out in several months; I did go up to London to see PWEI last October, but then Omicron took over and I didn't see Cud at The Garage on Dec 4th or PWEI at Chalk in Brighton on Dec 11th. I took the train, wearing my mask, and feeling a bit trepidatious...
I went straight to the venue and handed my coat in at the cloakroom. I wandered in to the main room and ordered myself a bottle of Brooklyn Lager Special Effects. I was debating whether to have an actual beer, but Special Effects is one of my favourite non-alcoholic beers, so I was happy drinking that.
There were two support bands, Growing Boi and Almahata. They were on early, which suited me, and Bess herself was due to take to the stage at 9pm. They were both good acts, very much singer-songwriters, and Growing Boi had a great voice I thought, if the guitar playing was a bit dodgy. He then went on to support Almahata and Bess, so he must be a very accomplished musician. Almahata (which is actually a female solo act called Phoebe) was good too, and she had one particular song, What if Now We All Change, which I really liked.
The two support bands were downtempo, acoustic (ish) and what I'd expect to see as support for an act like Bess Atwell. Bess herself came on at 9pm with a non-alcoholic beer and a camomile tea, which gives you some indication I suppose of her target audience. Patchouli incense sticks and ethically-crafted sandals didn't feel like they were too far away. The audience were enraptured. Although Bess and Chris were using microphones and amps, her songs are very intimate and there was a silence that took over the venue while she was singing. In between songs there were a lot of calls of "we love you, Bess!" and "Marry me!" She played the Co-Op song early on in her set, and there weren't any other songs which I was holding out for; there weren't many others that I knew, although I did enjoy Cherry Baby and Time Comes in Roses.
It got to just after half past nine and thoughts started turning to bedtime. I'm such a middle-aged man. I knew that it would take me a while to get home, and while the music was great it wasn't energising and there weren't any specific songs I was waiting to hear Bess sing live. So I waited for a song to finish, and then I collected my coat and headed off to the station.
It was a good enjoyable night, but it wasn't particularly what I was looking for last night. Maybe it was the first time for a while that I'd been in a busy venue, but I also think I've got quite a lot of other things going on, being Mum mostly but there is other stuff I'm worrying about too. I appreciated the performances, but I was glad to be heading home and I was pleased when I managed to get to bed at a comparatively reasonable time. I think I'd be happy to go and see any of these acts again, but I'd need to be in the right frame of mind to properly enjoy the experience.
TTFN.
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