Ringing ears and broken pedalboards @ Guinness White Tent, Sheffield

Another Friday night in good ol’ rainy Sheffield, another gig that makes my tinnitus a permanent condition (wonder if I can claim benefits over that?)

As part of St. Patrick’s celebration, those peddlers of the magic black potion (no, not Bovril) set up their (in)famous white tenth (right in front of City Hall). Between the grandiose greasy grub (sorry, I enjoy alliteration) and the deftly poured Guinness, 4 bands got their chance to crack out a few notes for the punters, while hopefully making the drizzle go away.

First it was the turn for acoustic troubadour Dan Williamson, whose sparse, sweet acoustic set had some good banter with the public. There two songs that really stood out, ‘Jenny didn’t erase me’ (cool fingerpicking technique) and the blues-like ‘Hospital bed’. After a song about dads and the champion league (it works, trust me), a cool cover of John Lennon’s ‘Working class hero’ closed the set.

The presenter fella said that Dan Williamson usually plays on Wednesdays at Frog and Parrot (on Division Street), so if a bit of folk is in your list of things to listen to, check him out.

I really liked The Hope Explosion when I first saw them at the O2 Academy in January and tonight wasn’t an exception, just the confirmation of my suspicions: they put up a killer show.

Between the sweet rock poses, tasty guitar riffs (‘Talk is cheap’ = chug chug chug!) and the powerful drumming (‘Pin down the detail’), they do know their way around the stage. Even if one of the pedalboards decided to sabotage their gig, the on stage banter made it a good time.

You could measure their live prowess with the big crowd that started to form up during their set. And how sweet is to get a free EP with three songs by them? So far really liking ‘Bored and broken hearted’ (the set closer AND the story of my life).

Their set does beg two questions: First: how many pedals can you fit into a pedalboard before it acquires consciousness and tries to decimate humanity? Second: How loud can a band go? The answer is still resonating in a few eardrums.

Wet Nuns, ah, I think the name says it all. Their sense of humour is the extra touch to the mental rhythm they keep with their style of music (country/metal/idunnowhatitisbutiloveit). Even if some of the tech problems continued with them (which they jokingly blamed on The Hope Explosion Curse), the audience was patient enough, getting some crunching rock as a reward.

Two amazing covers popped their heads around. First it was Link Wray’s ‘Rumble’ (which got a big up from Tarantino in Pulp Fiction) and then a haunting cover of ‘Bad moon rising’ (Creedence Clearwater Revival).

Between some anecdotes (including hearing someone on the audience at a previous gig calling them “american c____” as he walked out) and a constant reminder that their songs are either about women or death (an excellent pairing, if you ask a few spiteful people down on their luck), Wet Nuns just plain suckerpunched with their haymaking songs and their redneck drawls.

La Folie started up their set without any of the technical hitches, thankfully. The one-two double punch from ‘Apples’ and ‘Interlopers’ is always appreciated (my two faves from their album ‘Risus Sardonicus’). I’ve seen them twice before, and they are still pretty entertaining with their own brand of “satanic circus music”.

A remark about how much of a bad idea is to go into the stage with a couple of Guinness was a reminder that perhaps reviewing should be done without the black stuff making the notes unreadable. Still, I’m 50% sure I heard ‘Tramadol’ .

Also, they have a fever and the only remedy is double cowbell (‘Arachnophobia’). The best bit of a live La Folie show is how the feeling of anger permeating their album (by a combination of all instruments involved) is perfectly reproduced on stage.

So, gig done, had a great time and now it was the long walk home back to Crookes. After a quick stop for a pack of chewing gum at Spar, I dragged myself back uphill. Got a text from one of my editors, Quinto, telling me he needed me to go down to the police station ASAP. Oh, dear, I wonder what happened now?

—Sam

If this concert was a David Bowie song it would be : I took a trip on a Guinness Spacecraft

Check the bands at Myspace: The Hope Explosion , Wet Nuns , La Folie .

Their next gigs will be : The Hope Explosion (Plug, 26th of March) , Wet Nuns (The Grapes, 26th of March),

Check out our nifty gallery (now with more black and white, more shit level adjusting, more angles and slightly less blurry shots!)