The Unstoppable Sound of Seasalter
The Unstoppable Sound of Seasalter at Horsebridge Arts Centre, Whitstable, 15th July 2005:
After the previous day’s unmitigated success, I was hoping today would be a doddle. It wasn’t. Humidity, fatigue, an 11.00pm curfew (we had been warned about this), the bar closing at 10pm (we hadn’t been warned about this! On a Friday night, too!), overzealous ID checks, and a consipicuous absence of mood music in the first interval thanks to problems with the house speakers, all did their best to put a damper on the evening. Despite everything the inaugural USoS was a success. The crowd was of a modest size (about 50) but high quality, our equipment worked and the music was good.
Das Zumas played what has probably been one of our most manic-sounding sets and I’m not sure why, or how, considering the heat. This was well received and had plenty of people dancing, which is always surprising (though perhaps not to “Youth Club Disco” — the power of suggestion and all that) and always nice! Adam managed not to break his Hayman, which is always good, and Tom’s voodoo-punk drumming was at it’s most taught and hyperactive. I’ve always felt that the Bass VI is an instrument that has never been exploited to its full potential, until now. Though I say so myself…
Our extra-special guests, Hexicon, appeared in three-piece guise tonight (no drummer) and provided the perfect contrast to Zumas and the Reaction in our rock sandwich. Aided by sunglasses, the trio gave us a selection of favourites and new songs including “Favourite Flavour” and “Sweet Things”, with lots of French horn and lap-steel action. Paul’s guitar sounded particularly good tonight I thought, and not just because he was using my amp. Hexicon’s Heath Robinson catch-all approach is a little similar to that of the Reaction, I suppose, but the end result is very different: a sound that is warm and radiant but lo-fi with it, creating a sort of junk-shop Beach Boys effect.
The Psychotic Reaction closed the proceedings. Due to the looming risk of running out of time (ah, the poisoned chalice of the last slot), a last minute set edit meant I had to change guitar more often than I would have liked. Despite one or two problems with mic-feedback and finding the “right” sound (”Too much distortion!”, “Not enough distortion!”, “No distortion!”, arrgh!), we played pretty well. “Force of Nature” was more “rawk” than intended (that old pedal setting problem) but got us off to a good start. “Cocoon” was smooth-yet indefinably-angular, exactly as it should be. “Barking Up The Wrong Tree”, with twin bass guitar attack (four and six string) sounded cool-as, despite a slightly wayward tempo (more practice needed). “Dance of The Midwich Cuckoos” was somewhat hesitant, but is coming on nicely. It might work better at the top of the set. In “Put Your Weight On Me” and “It’s A Small Town” I made a couple of small but outright cock-ups which sounded horrendous on stage (to me, anyway) but actually sounded okay when we listened back to the recording. There we had to cut it short as the security guard unceremoniously announced that we had finished and pulled the plug. Not quite the Earth-shattering, epoch-defining evening I was completely unrealistically hoping for, but not bad at all considering the limitations of the venue and our lack of experience at organising something like this.
Thanks to everyone who came and especially to Paul for doing the sound, Sarah for running the CD stall, and Will for doing his best to make the Horsebridge Centre a successful venue despite the absurdly bad design and inadequate equipment.
Set list:
- Force of Nature
- Cocoon
- Barking Up The Wrong Tree
- In Your Head
- Dance Of The Midwich Cuckoos
- Put Your Weight On Me
- It’s A Small Town