I was back at The Borderline last night to see Ralfe Band. A few weeks of heavy gig-going was beginning to take its toll so after work I headed back home for a quick 90 minute power-sleep, before returning to central London, feeling re-energised.
I made it to The Borderline in time to catch one of the support bands, Treetop Flyers, who were quite impressive with their rich, alt-country guitar sound, full of sun-kissed harmonies and strong melodies. They reminded me at times of the great Grand Drive.
I made it to The Borderline in time to catch one of the support bands, Treetop Flyers, who were quite impressive with their rich, alt-country guitar sound, full of sun-kissed harmonies and strong melodies. They reminded me at times of the great Grand Drive.
I had enjoyed listening to the first two Ralfe Band albums over the days ahead of the show. I love their slightly wonky, off-kilter, folky music, with the occasional European flavourings and ramshackle quality. I had forgotten about their brilliant instrumentals also, full of elegant keyboard lines and unusual time signatures. I think they are the band that come closest to matching the music of the much-missed Gorky's Zygotic Mynci.
Tonight (amongst others) they played ‘Crow’, ‘1500 Years’, ‘Open Eye’, ‘Stumble’, ‘Attics’, ‘Ice Is On My Hands’ and finished with 'March Of The Pams'. They also played a few tracks from their soundtrack to ‘Bunny And The Bull’ (which I still haven’t got round to getting hold of yet).
Generally I thought they were pretty good although they seemed a little subdued in places and never appeared to really hit full stride. To be fair, the technical issues they experienced early in the set didn’t help, as did the fact that at times they seemed to be battling to make themselves heard against the sound of a large part of the audience talking whilst they played. Not good when their sound can sometimes be fairly quiet…
On a different subject, I am warming to the new Borderline. Maybe I was a little harsh in my earlier post….
Tonight (amongst others) they played ‘Crow’, ‘1500 Years’, ‘Open Eye’, ‘Stumble’, ‘Attics’, ‘Ice Is On My Hands’ and finished with 'March Of The Pams'. They also played a few tracks from their soundtrack to ‘Bunny And The Bull’ (which I still haven’t got round to getting hold of yet).
Generally I thought they were pretty good although they seemed a little subdued in places and never appeared to really hit full stride. To be fair, the technical issues they experienced early in the set didn’t help, as did the fact that at times they seemed to be battling to make themselves heard against the sound of a large part of the audience talking whilst they played. Not good when their sound can sometimes be fairly quiet…
On a different subject, I am warming to the new Borderline. Maybe I was a little harsh in my earlier post….
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