As it was still nice and early after the Jettblack gig, we went and had a pint and then headed up to the Proud Gallery in Camden where as part of their Saturday events they top up the art exhibition with a variety of music and other entertainment for weary shoppers.
We had a good look at the stills they have on display from Withnail & I, depicting Camden as it once was: a rotting hulk full of derelicts and derelict buildings being shown in the now thriving stables that seem to expand more every time we visit.
Still, we were actually there to see a gig by Jessica Irvine who is friends with Groover The Barbarian whose birthday we were also celebrating and who wanted to see Jess live.
We sank down into our leather sofas to watch Jess, seated on the stage with her acoustic guitar and opening with a tune called Kissing A Lagoon which sounds like it might be a fun thing to do. It was a decent song and her playing was pretty good too, only she was a touch nervous and hesitant as she introduced the next song Shadows that was about committing suicide. It was dark and her voice had a little bit of Linda Thompson about it, although not as wild and free as Linda's.
She Shot Me was one of several song that featured Jess going "whoops" when she made mistakes. Had she not uttered it, I'm sure most of us would have been none the wiser, certainly not the people who walked in looked at Uncle Monty (Richard Griffiths) on the wall and left via the other door making this in some ways feel like watching a busker more than a gig only there was no hat to throw change into.
Anyway, Branches has some interesting lyrics and sounded like a good work in progress as it came to a rather sudden stop as Jess hasn't quite figured out how to end her songs properly yet. Although if they had been written for a band that might have been someone else's job.
|
She then did a cover of Richard Thompson's Beeswing and did a decent job of it. Although her playing isn't as intricate as his it was still a cool version. Then we had a song about Flying Cars: the sort of thing you dream of after having too much Camberwell Carrot, though again it came minus a proper ending so she told us it had finished.
Then she played a new song that may or may not be called Courses and it sounded like it needs some work on both the structure and the lyrics, but there is time for it to improve.
Her short set finished with Australian Wood: a song about trying to figure out if an Australian guy loves you or not. It's a cool little story with intriguing lyrics and worth hearing.
Jessica Irvine may well be worth checking out in a year or so once she has played a few more gigs and her confidence has been boosted a little. Admittedly, going on at 5.15 on a Saturday afternoon can't help either. We were amazed to discover we had been to two gigs and it was still only 6pm!!
We didn't stay for any of the other bands on at Proud on Saturday and I think it seems to operate on a loose basis of everyone playing for the friends they can get to show up and the odd stray shopper dropping in for a drink. A little too hit and miss for my liking.
|
