Saturday 30 October 2010

Showcase:Live, Queen of Hoxton

My first time downstairs at the Queen of Hoxton, and what a super little venue!

This was my first time at Showcase:Live, and I'll definitely be going back. We had the pleasure of seeing Polar Night, The Pictures and finally Steve Appleton.

First on, Polar Night had that lovely full band sound, and to say this was their first London show I was mighty impressed. The room was already packed when we arrived, and I could feel my feet tapping along as I stood at the bar, I could happily listen to this music anytime, I look forward to seeing what's next for them.

The Pictures played a two person acoustic set. Apparently these guys were well known from the TV show Must Be The Music, which I have to admit I never watched, so really, not a clue what to expect. Bizarrely, the two people who played the set were the lead singer and the one who appears to be the drummer in the full band setup, but here was playing guitar. I have to say that the three of us were TOTALLY mesmerised by the drummer's cheeky grin...this was lighting up the room with his smile territory, not many people can do that. The lead singer was a bit nuts, but they were really excellent, so I'd love to see them as a full band. Here's the video from Must Be The Music.

Finally, Steve Appleton. You'll see that we saw Steve Appleton earlier in the year, and he was the main draw for us to this gig. A little bit different to last time, and without a full band, he played a couple of older songs, but mostly demo'd some new ones, which were really great. This man has more talent in his little finger than I have in my whole body, and between the guitar, the keyboard and using his new loop station, the sound was full and interesting. He even managed to pull off Twist and Shout out at the end for an encore. I very much look forward to hearing more from him.

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