741 BAND OF HORSES, The Cave Singers, Bristol Thekla, Monday 25 February 2008

Finally I get to do the "gig on a boat" thing and go to the Thekla, after many spurned opportunities! This was also to see rising stars Band Of Horses, who'd delivered 2 albums in short order, veering between alt and trad country of the dustiest, most stripped back variety, and occasional resonant and deliciously strident wall-of-noise US alt-rock. Big beards too, so I'm told. More contenders for the title of The New Grandaddy?

So anyway, I set sail for this one, parking up in the very conveniently placed car park and going on board the venue (!), turning down a bouncer's offer of £100 for my ticket, allegedly on behalf of a disappointed punter, for this sell-out show. You're not serious, surely?? It's a good venue, run-down and very rock'n'roll, about the size of the Fleece and with good high-roof acoustics and balcony, but definitely a boat! Got a position starboard-side for openers the Cave Singers, who did a very trad-country set of dusty lullabies, with the vocalist rocking a big beard (or so I thought at the time) and a trilby hat. "We're about 1/4 of the way through," he said before their last number. Funny...

It was appropriate that the gig was taking place on an old rusty trawler, as when the 6-piece Band Of Horses took the stage at 9.15 prompt, they looked like a gang of Pacific Longshoremen, all work shirts and huge beards (I've used "Amish Farmers" to describe Grandaddy before, and that wasn't far off here either!). Live, they definitely tended towards the dusty country side of their output, with the superslow burn of opener "Monsters" typical, although after "Is There A Ghost" (my favourite, a delicious Pale Saints-like wall of noise affair), a rock gig briefly threatened to break out...

No, this Band Of Horses were set to trot rather than gallop, with "No-One's Gonna Love You" a heart-melting set highlight, delivered with the Wayne Coyne-esque helium vocals of Ben Bridwell, sounding an octave too high for comfort, but making it work. The sing-along stomp of "The General Specific" ended a fine set and encore of 1 hour 15 minutes, by which time I was at the front and scrounging a set-list from burly keyboardist Ryan Munroe, who also shook my hand with his huge meaty paw. So, a fine evening, although they'll have to step up a gear "live" for the bigger venues that inevitably await. They're at the Shepherd's Bush Empire in July - we'll be there too, so we'll see!

750 BAND OF HORSES, The Virgins, London Shepherd's Bush Empire, Tuesday 8 July 2008

A seemingly promising evening ended up a real disappointment for a variety of reasons. Rachel, who'd missed my recent BOH Thekla gig, booked tix for this one after really warming to their scorched alt-Country meets wall-of-sound CDs. However she fell ill at the last minute so had to miss this one. D'oh! So just Tim and myself for this, as we drove up debating the merits of Band Of Horses selling out such a big venue as this, after such a swift rise to prominence. Could they carry it off?

Parked up at 8, failing to sell our spare ticket, then hit the venue to catch half of the Virgins' support slot. They were totally forgettable bland pop with an almost 80's feel - Haircut 100 meets Hot Hot Heat, only nowhere near as good as that should sound! Had a drink and wander instead, baulking at the merch prices - £20 for t-shirts these days? Ouchie!

Took a position by the bar on the floor, stage right, behind some dickhead who yelled "whooo" repeatedly throughout. Was I/ am I ever that bad at a gig? Hope not! Band Of Horses arrived at 9 and proceeded to "rock out", kicking off with an oomph to "Great Salt Lake" and following it up with their best number, "Is There A Ghost", which really soared, benefitting from the powerful live rendition. The crowd were well up for this one, and so was the headbanded Ben Bridwell, shouting and throwing rock shapes like Springsteen. Unfortunately, the rock treatment detracted from the intricate delicacy of many of their numbers, and the set varied from powerful and punchy, to loud and somewhat clumsy.

They partly redeemed themselves with a touching "No-One's Gonna Love You" and a trad new country number sung by big keyboardist Ryan, however at the end of a dragging 1 hour 20 minute set we were gone, a little disappointed that they'd tried to raise their game by raising the volume. Grandaddy effortlessly walked the tightrope between power and delicacy, Band Of Horses currently do not.

And to cap it all, we had to detour via Heathrow due to an M4 closure, so got back late. So a disappointment all round, I'm afraid...