Clash @ Concrete & Glass - day one

Concrete and Glass is a two-day music and arts festival held in various venues across Shoreditch. There’s a huge amount of interesting stuff to see – not just bands, but painting and photography exhibitions, too. I’m afraid I don’t really get into the whole venue-hopping festival mood, opting instead to visit only two of the festival’s 13 locations (and I really shouldn’t have bothered going to the second venue – more on that later). So this blog only really scratches the surface of the full Concrete and Glass experience, day one.

I’d heard good things about Frightened Rabbit and, er, pretty much nothing about any of the other acts playing at the same time, so I duly head over to their gig at the Hoxton Square Bar and Grill to see the Scots. I’ve always had a soft spot for the kind of miserabilism exhibited by the likes of countrymen Arab Strap and The Twilight Sad, and Frightened Rabbit are squarely in that tradition. They have some decent, affecting tunes and prove themselves adept at on-stage banter when a (male) audience member calls out desperately for a female acquaintance between songs. “She’s stood you up!” jokes singer Scott Hutchison.

“You’re the shit and I’m knee-deep in it...”

A couple of observations: a bass guitar is played on only one of the numbers, but basslines are audible on all their songs. How do they do that? Well, there is a computer on the stage. So it’s probably the computer doing the bass, right? Of the lyrics, “You’re the shit and I’m knee-deep in it” stands out, but for all the wrong reasons.

The handy, pocket-sized Concrete and Glass guidebook includes a brief précis of each participating act. Sometimes, though, they may as well have not bothered writing anything at all. Take, for example, the blurb written about the Bar’s next act, Bodies of Water: “[they] play loud, intricate songs and sing very emphatically, usually all at once”. Brilliant!

The band takes the stage. They begin playing and – whaddayaknow? – their songs are loud and intricate, and they do sing very emphatically – usually all at once. The effect of Bodies of Water’s music isn’t always that pleasant, but they’re notably tight musicians and they demand the audience’s attention throughout.

Next up is O’Death, another band about whom I’ve heard positive rumblings. Visually, they are – to be frank – a right shower. The singer looks like Stanley Kubrick in his later, beardy phase; the banjo-player resembles a college professor (default description for anyone sporting glasses and facial hair) and the shirtless rhythm section, all long hair and tattoos, looks as if it’s been borrowed from a thrash metal band.

But O’Death’s unusual physical appearance actually provides a decent clue to their sound – just as their sartorial choices combine the formal with the anarchic, their music blends traditional folk and bluegrass sounds with the ferocious delivery of punk. The first song is particularly frenetic and intense. I shall be seeking a copy of their latest LP, ‘Broken Hymns, Limbs, & Skin’.

Did Black Affair play in the end? I’ll never know...

I only see the first 15 minutes of O’Death’s set, as I decide to head over to Brick Lane to see Black Affair’s performance at the Vibe Bar. At least, that was the plan. I arrive at 11pm, when the set was supposed to begin, but there is no sign of the band, only a DJ playing songs to a sparsely-populated room. The DJ is recognisably Steve Mason of Black Affair (and formerly of the Beta Band), so I initially assume this is just a warm-up for the main act. Half an hour later there is still no sign of the full band, unless one bloke and a computer is what constitutes the Black Affair live experience.

Did Black Affair play in the end? I’ll never know, as I headed home at 11.30, perplexed rather than disgruntled.

Read part two HERE.