1,373 THE LOFT, Yeah Yeah Noh, Birmingham Castle and Falcon, Friday 14th March 2025

 

A couple of late additions to my Spring Dance Card for tonight and tomorrow, courtesy of my old friend Paul Crowfoot! Seattle-domiciled Paul gave me the heads-up earlier this week that he was flying in for a business meeting in France and had finagled a weekend family visit in the ‘don, but had also arranged a couple of gigs whilst in Blighty, and would I fancy joining him? A chance to catch up with an old friend with “live” music as a backdrop… why the hell not? Tomorrow is a closer trip to see some hometown heroes, but first, a long jaunt to catch jangly proto-C86 janglers The Loft in Birmingham, near where mutual friend and another expat Townie Roger Herman lives. The Loft had already split by the time I picked up on them back in the 80’s, singer/songwriter Pete Astor and drummer Dave Morgan then forming the more countrified guitar merchants The Weather Prophets, whom I did like, picking up their albums and seeing them one time in 1987 (gig 76!). My musical tastes had subsequently led me elsewhere, so I was unfamiliar with Astor’s post-WP activity, so tonight, musically at least, was a voyage of discovery…

Speaking of voyage… I picked Paul up from his sister’s place at 5, and a swift drive catching up on family matters and putting the world to rights got us street parked up a stone’s throw from the venue just after 7. The place wasn’t yet open, so we met Roger and his charming wife Kate in the queue, before continuing the chat in this pub back-room venue, which reminded me in size and orientation (if not altitude!) of Cardiff’s Clwb Ifor Bach! A smattering of old musos and locals had gathered for 6-piece support Yeah Yeah Noh, on at 8.10. Of similar vintage to the headliners, they’d passed me by back then and honestly gave me no reason to regret that tonight. I liked a few of their numbers – opener “Bias Binding” was a racey rambunctious number with a chanted hook, “Beware The Weakling Lines” was a jolly Fall/ Sultans Of Ping-esque droney rant and my favourite of their set (despite the vocalist warning, “this is terrible, but what the fuck…”), and a little vignette from The Shop Assistants’ “Train From Kansas City” enlivened the final number – but overall their basic ramshackle DIY toytown jangle sounded dated and even incongruous, particularly when played by be-suited 60-somethings. At nearly an hour as well, this was one to file under, “Heavy Going”…

We’d secured a table, house left, on entry, and I stayed there while my gig companions grabbed a spot nearer the front for The Loft’s entrance at 9.45. “You’re all looking fine,” complimented guitarist Andy Strickland (whom I’d recently seen in the reformed Chesterfields line-up) before dapper turtle-necked vocalist Astor counted them in to opener “On A Tuesday”, a robust Byrds-esque jangle-fest with a slight hint of underlying menace. This pretty much set the tone for a melodic, accomplished sounding and well-crafted set of thoughtful and erudite indie pop, with various classic 60’s influences at play (The Byrds being an obvious signpost, although a louche early “Elephant” had hints of Jonathan Richman, and a mid-set “Up The Hill And Down The Slope” – a track I did know well before tonight – featured Astor going all Lou Reed on us with his garbled yet languid vocal delivery, over its’ taut, tense duelling guitar riffery), and delivered with an understated laconic wit. “It may stun you, but I actually have a job,” deadpanned Astor before the more trad-country rockisms of “Got A Job”, “[as] a garbage collector…!”

I missed most of the mid-set layered textural guitar workout of “Winter” as I took a call outside from my son Logan, off with his mates in Bournemouth this weekend, but grabbed my seat back for their rendition of The Weather Prophets’ late-period Violent Femmes-esque murder ballad “Worm In My Brain”. Then the plangent and plaintive harmony of a late “Why Does The Rain” was my overall set highlight, a hooky “Dr. Clarke” rounding off the set before a 2 song encore took us up to a late 5 to 11. Roger and Kate had already headed off to catch their local train home, so Paul and I made a quick getaway on The Loft’s final note, a confusing SatNav route initially taking us North before getting us onto the M42 and M5 for an equally swift chat-enlivened drive home, getting Paul home at 12.30.

So overall, Yeah Yeah Noh were a no no no from me, but The Loft were better than I anticipated, despite a fair percentage of the material being a little too trad-countrified for my tastes, and I’d certainly be happy to catch them again. However, tonight was all about catching up with old friends, so in that regard, this was a splendid and entirely successful evening out!