Review by Pete Callaghan
Since
Aaron Mobberly’s Commitment EP back in January I’ve been looking forward to
hearing a bit more from him, and after seeing him about at various venues it
got me all excited to hear he had a single release coming up at the ‘mill, even
if I did keep getting the date mixed up. So I climbed aboard the ol’faithful,
as she should rightfully be known (the 18 bus if you want to be accurate) and
darkened the streets of Hanley with my presence once again.
I
was little late for the first set by Sam Astley, who’s name I’ve heard banded
about over the past couple years, but what I did manage catch I really enjoyed.
The guy’s got such a powerful voice, at times I thought he didn’t really need
mic’ing up but he’s able to bring it down to such a low, subtle level that
shows real skill. It’s indicative of his vocal range and guitar playing that
his songwriting was just as good. To underscore this point, he was able to make
up a song off the cuff, which was both funny and very catchy. His last track
“The Chip Shop Song” was particular good as he heckled the audience to sing
along and was joined by friends, who he had previously sung about, who danced
their way onto the stage in something that felt rehearsed and spontaneous at
the same time. Great set from what I saw.
Next
on to the ‘mills stage was Monster I Am who sang mostly ironic melancholy folk
numbers. It was hard to decipher whether he sang about actual terrible
experiences which had happened to him (like, whoever the girl was he lost, it
sounded like she destroyed him) or that he was being satirical about the whole
depressing folk scene. To be honest, I think it’s best to not dwell on such matters
as it just abstracts itself away from the music so what I’ll write about how
the good the tracks were. I enjoyed the Killers cover of “Mr Brightside” and
the brilliantly titled “Hunting for Bitches” but “Talk Show Host” really made
it for me; it was a gentle, ingenious song, clever and remorseful. Definitely
hope he’ll being doing more gigs soon.
Luckily,
as it was soon evident, Marc O’Reily decided to stop by Stoke-on-Trent as part
of his six-week tour of England - luckily because it’s rare that you get to see
someone with who is this good. O’Reily’s style of acoustic playing is unique:
from sublime fret tapping, guitar drumming (which he could play at furious
speeds) to brilliant blues picking, acoustic numbers. You can hear the passion
in both his lyrics and his playing. His track “Foo” stood out as it wasn’t like
the blues inspired technical playing I heard in his other tracks but completely
soulful and authentic. To see him fully immersed in the moment is an incredible
sight; I was utterly mesmerized watching him. He is a spectacular talent from
Ireland and all I hope is that I’ll get to see him play live again some day.
Before
the main event, we were treated to the debut of Mobberly’s video for “Unison
Harmonies”. It’s really well shot, featuring some lovely landscape shots and,
of course, the single which is brilliant by itself. Aaron then took to the
stage and played a few solo tracks before being joined by Sam Bloor,
Brad Malbon and Alexander Howick on lead guitar, drums and bass respectively.
It’s the first time I’ve seen Aaron live with a backing band and honestly, I wasn’t
sure it was going to work. Aaron’s vocals and chord work is just so special on
its own that I thought that the full band setup might be too much live.
Thankfully, I was completely wrong. It really gave a lot of
emphasis to the tracks and how good the songwriting is. ‘Crayons’ and ‘Commitment’
sounded fantastic, as did ‘Looking for’ and it was nice to see the audience
really showing a lot of support for some great music.
When
Autumn comes around, I like to listen to folk. I don’t know why, the two just
seem to go well together. Over the past couple of years it’s been Midlake’s ‘Trials
of Van Occupypanther’ and Fleet Foxes’ debut album and usually some Nick Drake
for good measure. But thanks to this gig and the release of ’Unison Harmonies’
I’ve got a lot of local and unsigned acts I can listen to that will fit my
Autumn mood well.
