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| Julie Baenziger - Sea of Bees. Image Courtesy of Paul Bevan. Twitter: @paulbevan |
Which brings me to the gig itself, starting
at 8pm the first band (Electric Eden) had an awkward opening due to about 3
people having arrived at that point. As a three piece with a violinist, double
bassist and a guitar player who also played the bass drum on a foot pedal, they
were a novelty, and whilst their warm folky tunes, with which they opened, were
pretty good, as they moved on it became apparent that they were trying to
emulate Mumford and Sons (they even covered one of their songs), which is
unfortunate, because Mumford and Sons are soulless, corporate wetbags and
should never be emulated. The gig carried on in this lyrically cheesy sort of
manner until the last song, which really took me by surprise; it was one of
their own and with a quite comical (in a good way) reggae style breakdown, they
brought back the glimpses of folky potential shown in the early stages of their
set. Electric Eden finished on a high, showing potential, although, it most
certainly hasn’t been realised yet. My recommendation: Don’t seek them out by
any means, but don’t be sad if they show up on the set list either.
The next band to take the stage were a
pretty plain band that were reminiscent of The Calling, that early noughties
(awful word) pop rock band that did ‘Wherever you will go’. So if you’re a fan
of generic early noughties pop rock, then they might have been the band for
you, otherwise, a bit bland. My recommendation: If it’s cheap, and you have a
soppy sort of taste in music from the early 2000’s then sure, why not!
The real surprise of the night was
Barbarossa, setting up on stage with 3 keyboards and a midi table (from what I
could see) with a drummer discreetly to the side, James Mathe a.k.a. Barbarossa
took the now well populated crowd by storm. The talent shown in his playing of
multiple instruments was obvious, and in a style that included minimal house
beats, yet still retained an emotive quality that really connected with the
audience, especially the track bloodlines, which brought a silence over the
crowd in attendance, a noumenal moment if you will. I recommend this one to
anyone who likes the likes of Thom Yorke or Bon Iver, with whom Barbarossa
shares likenesses. A real gem live, the music doesn’t seem as good when
researching his tracks online, which is not a dismantling of his music, but a
testament to his superb live performance. My recommendation would be: If you
get the chance, go and see Barbarossa. I’m sure he’ll be showing up in high
places.
We then come to the headliners, I’d heard a
couple of Sea of Bees songs a few years ago, wizbot being the track that stuck
out at the time, but what greeted me was not the quiet solitary acoustic set
that I had expected, but a far more polished and much more upbeat 4 piece Sea
of Bees, which I suppose follows the same vein as their new album ‘Orangefarben’.
They opened well, with Julie Baenziger’s wonderfully unique vocal style
immediately showing why there is a fuss building up around their music. The
crowd also immediately took to Baenziger’s warm and somewhat intoxicated
banter, adding to the cosy experience. The real surprise for me was the energy
with which the band performed, creating the first scenes of mass dancing that
had occurred all night. The intriguingly uncommon sound that the Sea of Bees manages
to create is one that is being increasingly acknowledged, and it’s unsurprising,
their sound is fresh, and it wouldn’t surprise me to find them playing their
quirky indie-folk at much bigger venues in the near future. My recommendation:
Don’t even think about it, just do it, you will not regret it. Great fun.
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