LIVE: Sofar Sounds Oxford at Sarah's house (7/10/16)

Last night I went to another brilliant Sofar Sounds Oxford, hosted beautifully by Sarah in her lovely living room! This time around I didn't take my camera along (pretty distracting in such a tiny space... it was definitely my first gig sat on a fireplace), and I was instead in charge of social media... tweeting photos and posting to Facebook, as well as my first ever live videos. It was a lovely evening with great artists and a bunch of wonderful people, raising money for Oxfam through their Oxjam Festival (the main Oxjam Takeover in Oxford takes place on 15th October, tickets here for a huge number of bands playing venues up and down Cowley Road.) 

If you don't know the history of Sofar, it was set up by a couple of guys who were sick of going to gigs with the audience talking during the sets, going to the bar etc (I know the feeling), so they started to host shows in their living room and as more people came, it spread and is now in over 270 cities worldwide. In the majority of places, most shows are still in living rooms, however Oxford Sofar takes place in so many brilliant locations (art galleries, cinemas, cafes) so last night was my first proper Sofar house gig, which is pretty cool. 

The show last night kicked off with country brothers Loud Mountains, who are from the USA but now based in Oxford. It wasn't until after the show that I figured I'd seen them before supporting Neverlnd almost a year ago at the O2. Last night, rather ironically as they both played our Oxjam show a year ago, the duo reminded me of a mix of Adam Barnes and Chris Ayer. They play the proper Oxjam takeover a week today so you can catch them then, and check out this beautiful track She's A Fire, performed for the Green Chair Sessions.

Loud Mountains

Next up was another American artist, Meredith Baker, a singer-songwriter who studied her MSc in African Studies at Oxford University and who has played a few Sofar shows around the world, but not in Oxford, so it was a pretty special one for her. Her album Maybe I Won't Come Home Tonight features many of the tracks she played last night, including Reggae My Blues Away (video from another Sofar) which encouraged a big sing-along!

Meredith Baker

After Meredith, we were lucky to have Nigel Powell, AKA The Sad Song Co., who is a drummer for his day job, touring pretty relentlessly with Frank Turner. With a new album to promote, it was his first solo set in eight years, the opening night of a mini tour (including a free London show, details here), so we were very lucky! I hadn't listened to his music before but he had me at that name... we all love a sad song, right?! 

The Sad Song Co.

Finally, I was very happy to see The Fusion Project play for the first time, having missed their performance at another Sofar Oxford in Worcester Chapel  previously. Usually far stronger in numbers they played a fairly stripped back but impressive set, opening with their cover of one of my favourite tracks, Ed Sheeran's track for The Hobbit, I See Fire - which you can see in its full glory here! With the mission of taking "the immense depth and beauty of Indian Classical music to a wider audience in the West", they are headlining a huge show for Tigmus at The Sheldonian Theatre, the first night of its kind to take place in the venue, which is traditionally a venue for Western classical music. It's going to be a great night and tickets are available here - please come and join us! Also a little mention to Josh, who plays bass for the guys as well as Little Brother Eli, who are playing as part of our Tigmus season at the O2 Academy Oxford next Friday - it'd be great to see some of you there too!

The Fusion Project

All in all a brilliant show - the next Sofar Sounds Oxford show is free as part of a family fun day at the New Theatre on 15th October, with the next regular show on 4th November (I won't be there as I'm seeing Dawes that night but can guarantee you a great evening if you choose to go along!) 

LIVE: Balloon Ascents at O2 Academy Oxford (24/10/15)

Though I've been feeling pretty sorry for myself for the past few days (probably due to being out in the cold at a few gigs last week, and lack of sleep), I decided to pop down the road to the O2 Academy Oxford on Friday night to see local guys Balloon Ascents play their single launch for Don't Look Down, with local supports Loud Mountains, Little Brother Eli, and Esther Joy Lane - turned out to be a pretty good decision!

Artwork for the new Balloon Ascents release.

Arriving a little late I missed some of Loud Mountains set, but I was intrigued to see them play as they'd pulled out of a show I went to a few weeks ago. Looking back at the notes on my phone that I made to remember what I'd thought of the set, I find simply 'nice harmonies' and 'folky', which is a pretty concise but decent (?) review. They set the precedent for the night, with all four acts being local bands and artists, friends and linked in various ways, with different musical styles but fitting together quite well - testament to the brilliant organisation of Tigmus.

Second to play were Little Brother Eli, whose music started to form a little more of a crowd than the scattering of people found up to that point. Another local band which I get the impression are fairly well loved, they entered the stage dressed to impress. The five piece band, who describe their genre as 'bluesy garage rock' put on a fun set with superb guitar solos and an enthusiastic and powerful performance from frontman Alex. 

Esther Joy Lane was up next - perhaps the most surprising act of the night and the only soloist on the bill, playing electronic music (with a hint of guitar in one track until it disconnected - a glitch which she very smoothly dealt with!) With her soft voice she made the electronic music fit well into the night, where in theory it seemed a confusing addition - and a crowd, cheering on the local talent started to form, awaiting the arrival of the headliners. A particular highlight of her set was the closing track, Poets, an ode to the late Robin Williams. The night was special for Esther too in that she released an EP yesterday, and had play on BBC Radio 6 Music as 'Recommendation of the day' a couple of days ago. Definitely one to watch on the local scene.

Having seen Balloon Ascents a couple of times before including in the same venue a few months ago - I thought I knew what to expect, but the band felt like it had been invigorated. Frontman Thomas had gained another level of charisma (I'd be interested to see if he's been taking tips from other performers), jumping around the stage and belting out the lyrics to some of the band's well known tracks - for a relatively small local band this seems a strange thing to say, but the crowd, who loved every minute, were hanging on each word and recognising tracks from their opening chords. The band seemed to be having an equally great time, feeding off of one another's energy and excitement for the show.

The newly released tracks went down well, as well as a completely new track which Thomas invited the audience to "listen for the mistakes" in as it hadn't been played live before - but the band were tight as ever, having played together for around 5 years - no mean feat when they're all around 18 years old now. Showcasing their diversity as a band they took it down a notch to play the slightly more stripped back No - see a performance of the track from a Sofar Sounds show in Reading earlier in the year here. Another highlight of the set for me was the opening track, their take on William Blake's poem London which they created for a Sofar Sounds Oxford show earlier in the year. Take a watch below to see a snippet of Cutout, another recent single from the band. 

Overall a fun night (if spent mostly coughing at the back of the room) seeing four fairly different but each credible and talented local acts who are all doing well, and have great things ahead of them. You can stream and buy Don't Look Down/Someone on the Balloon Ascents bandcamp here, and see them live at The Bullingdon in Oxford on 29th November as part of Oxford City Festival.