Dag for Dag - Shoreditch - 31 Jan 2010

FIRST PUBLISHED AT ALTSOUNDS.COM


Upstairs in a pub in Shoreditch, not just any pub but the renowned old blue last. The audience strike me as not casual, they are here because they are in the know, well-informed and well warmed up by the time Dag for Dag hit the stage. And how they hit that stage.

Looking like glitter hippie refugees, headbands, silver scarves and attitude.




Dag for Dag rock like some post punk noiseniks, putting up a wall of sound from the off. It's well formed though, beautifully executed, brother and sister Sarah Snavely and Jacob Snavely trading off each other musically and emotionally. Sarah is the guitar Meister, with Jacob on bass . The band is made up on stage with Chuck Bukowski on drums, and at one point they are even joined by a second bass player to add slap.

They got here tonight from Sweden, where they tell us they live their American lives. It's been quite trip for them to get here, starting out in California, apparently living separate lives until they got together in Stockholm maybe two years ago. They have hardly gone native, from what I can gather they speak about as much Swedish as I do, almost enough to get by.

On that small sweaty stage, they expend energy like it's going out of fashion, like Iggy Pop doubled, despite Sarah being six months pregnant, which she herself tells us from the stage. My new friend Jim, alongside me and himself a grandfather says he will put at more like 5 and a half. Sarah tells us the father is here somewhere in the audience and we all kind of half turn around. Jacob jokes that they are going to get Sarah a 12 string so the baby can join in, Sarah ripostes that until then they were thinking about putting a distorted mic on the bump. All of a sudden 'Distorted Mike' becomes a new comic character.

None of this stops brother and sister trading guitar and bass licks although Jacob does most of the throwing himself around the stage. This is one good night and the crowd are lapping it up, drawn into their raucous good noise.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkqlzoSZMvE

Sarah Snavely
Jacob Snavely
with Chuck Bukowski

They are touring Europe but back in the UK in March

2 Feb The Deaf Institute Manchester
10 Feb Boo Release Party @ Södra Bar, Mosebacke Stockholm
20 Feb Debaser Malmö with Railcars Malmö
22 Feb Molotow Hamburg
23 Feb Bang Bang Club Berlin
24 Feb Groove Station Dresden
25 Feb Orangehouse Munich
27 Feb Rock im Saal Festival Haldern
1 Mar Italian Tour Faenza
2 Mar Rome
3 Mar Teraccini
4 Mar Florence
5 Mar Cesena
7 Mar Back in the UK - Portland Arms - Cambridge
8 Mar The Garage Upstairs London
9 Mar The Cooler Bristol
10 Mar Captains Rest Glasgow
11 Mar The Bodega Social Club Nottingham
12 Mar Hedon Zwolle
24 Mar Les Femmes S’en Mêlent Festival @ Cabaret Electric Le Havre
25 Mar Les Femmes S’en Mêlent Festival @ La Carene Brest
27 Mar Fuzz Yon La Roche Sur Yon
29 Mar Les Femmes S’en Mêlent Festival @ La Maroquinerie Paris

She Keeps Bees - The Old Blue Last, London - 31 Jan 2010

Tales of wearing cheap underwear in fashionable Paris, raw blues rock, Bee stamps, this was a night to remember.

It's always a thing when you've admired a band from afar, and that moment finally arrives. It did for me on Sunday night in London's East End. I've been keen to catch up with She Keeps Bees and their live thing since the first moment I heard them on some dusty corner of the internet. They were very nearly enough reason to drag me to a muddy festival last year, but in the end life got in the way, so it had been a long time coming. Oh, the waiting makes it sweeter.

First up, praise be for 'The Local' http://www.localism.org.uk/ for organising this night. They run regular gig nights but what with me being a London newbie it was the first one I've got to. I've got big admiration for the dedicated few promoters and organisers who keep the likes of me sated with the live experience. On the other hand that pales compared to the respect I have for the bands themselves who build their lives around doing just whatever it takes to get out on the road and connect with their people. And it seems like She Keeps Bees must love the road, the amount of gigging they've got on the go. There were two other bands on the bill, 'Dag for Dag' and 'Something Beginning With L', who were both bloody brilliant if truth be told, but it was lo-fi blues that was going to itch my scratch the most tonight.

She Keeps Bees are a simple set up - Andy LaPlant on drums and Jess Larrabee on guitar. Not much in the way of effects. In fact nothing in the way of effects. Just one pedal, and even that had Jess cursing at one point. It had an indicator LED which caught the girl's eye - "Red light bad, oh fuck, oh fuck, oh the green's come on, that's OK!". That sort of guile-less interaction really marked them out, that total lack of pretence, just being a guy and a girl playing in a room and appearing to enjoy it hugely. I was kind of glad that my first experience of them wasn't in a muddy field, much better in the upstairs of a pub, leaning on a monitor with my sleeve soaked in beer.

Maybe despite the simple set-up, maybe because of it, but there was just so much blues power coming out of these two people. Blues in a lo-fi, garage, sort of way. Mighty powerful but casual and comforting at the same time. Comfort in sound, this is what it means. Sure they shout, whoop and holler, but in a friendly way. And man alive, they get some noise out of that guitar and those drums.

Jess was in chatty mood. Started off telling us that she'd had to buy new jeans. But she couldn't leave it there. The old ones had worn a hole in the crotch, and what use was that to anyone, she wondered? So she'd bought some new ones, but they made her look like she'd filled her pants if you know what I mean. And then there was the underwear. She doesn't see why she should be made to buy girly underwear when she can, y'know, but a ten pack for five dollars from Uniqlo. But playing in fashionable Paris, some random dude had come up behind her and tucked back in the label that was sticking out the top of her pants and said he did that to everyone he saw, wanted them all to be neat. Pervy if you ask me. And then Jess said that she was doing better than her Mom, that she (Jess) actually wears underwear! At which point she wondered why she'd told us all that. What the heck, I think we all found it educational, and it just added to the charm of a charming noisy night.

In a set drawn heavily from recent album "Nests", highlight song of the night for me was 'Ribbon' but in truth it's hard to choose. Gimmie was great as well. Oh alright, there wasn't a duffer in there. There was plenty of variety from more or less a cappella to downright thrash. Voice on it's own or howlin' strings work just as well for me from these two

They played so hard Jess thought she'd broken a string, dumped the guitar on the ground for a song anyway, asked Andy if she'd broken it, decided she hadn't, drove into the final song.

Too quick, it was over too quick.

I was a bit mystified about someone mentioning 'Bee Stamps' until I asked the band to sign a CD cover for me after the show, and Jess ceremoniously produced one of those John Bull printing things with an ink pad and put a lovely stamped bee imprint on the cover. And signed it. And drew a bee as well. Ah.

Their second album "Nests" is out now, but if you like gutsy blues played by real nice people, go and see them now. And get yourself a Bee stamp.


http://www.myspace.com/shekeepsbees

FIRST PUBLISHED AT ALTSOUNDS

It was a lovely and intimate gig - I feel privileged to have seen them there. If anyone is interested in seeing She Keeps Bees live, here's the tour dates - they come back to the UK on 9/10 March before heading off to SXSW

5 Feb 41 King Street Blackburn
6 Feb Dulcimer Manchester
7 Feb Rescue Rooms Nottingham
8 Feb Whelans (upstairs) Dublin
9 Feb Cypress Avenue Cork
10 Feb Roisin Dubh (upstairs)Galway
12 Feb CAI Cardiff
13 Feb Louisiana Bristol
14 Feb Hope Brighton
15 Feb Cafe Video Gent
16 Feb Botanique/Witloofbar Brussels
17 Feb Burgerweeshuis Café Deventer
18 Feb Paradiso Amsterdam
19 Feb Patronaat Cafe Haarlem
23 Feb Peniche Lille
25 Feb La Rockschool Barbey Bordeaux
27 Feb Maroquinerie Paris
28 Feb Astra Stube Hamburg
1 Mar West Germany with David Thomas Broughton!! Berlin
3 Mar Scheune Dresden
4 Mar Fluc Wien
5 Mar Hafen 2 Offenbach
6 Mar Manufaktur Schorndorf
9 Mar The Lexington London
10 Mar What’s Cooking London
17 Mar SXSW Austin, Texas

Something Beginning With L - Shoreditch, 31 Jan 2010

This band really go to prove that there is huge strength in depth in live indie music now. These were first on stage before She Keeps Bees and Dag for Dag. I actually got there early enough to catch the end of the sound check and that was impressive enough.

Jen and Lucy share lead vocals. I've never heard anything about them before. In fact, their myspace plays would suggest I'm not alone. That needs to change. Just when I was settling in for nice girly harmonies, somebody threw a switch and they clicked over into Dave Grohl mode. Whoa! Well worth seeing again, so I will