The Nottingham Rocks concert
is in its third year already and has established itself as a part of the music
calendar for the city, offering a small handful of acts the opportunity to
appear in the sumptuous surroundings of the Theatre Royal backed by a fourteen
piece orchestra. As a musical showcase this can be a perilous affair; some acts
have continued to climb the ladder while others were not so lucky and disappeared
into the rhythmic wilderness. Even riskier was the fact that last year’s show
featured Georgie Rose, Harleighblu, and St Raymond, none of them to be seen on
a ‘where are they now’ list anytime soon, so this year’s weaker by comparison
(with the exception of The Afterdark Movement) lineup had an almighty task
ahead of them to reach that raised bar.
The aforementioned Afterdark
Movement was on first, a surprising move considering they were the biggest name
on the bill. Opening with ‘She Said’ to an enthusiastic welcome from the
audience, they demonstrated with style why they won the 2013 Future Sound of Nottingham
showcase. The orchestra complimented them extremely well and as such I’d
personally like to see them pursue this avenue more in the future. If there
were any nerves about performing – to use a dreadful expression – outside of
their comfort zone then there was no sign of it on the stage. Taking their bow
as if it was an average day at the office, you could tell that it won’t be too
long before this is considered a small gig at Afterdark Movement headquarters.
For a presumably well rehearsed
show, there seemed to be a lot of fiddling about on stage in between sets. This
caused a fair amount of restlessness from the audience in need of drinks,
toilet visits, and cigarette breaks. On the other hand, the pause in the
proceedings could have been caused by the stage manager trying to persuade the
next performer that of course they could follow such a powerful opener.
Next on the bill to an equally
warm welcome was Noah. A bit bland by comparison to the opening act, and
drowning out the orchestra somewhat, they soon warmed up enough to look as
though they were enjoying themselves, and they were very popular with the
audience so I can’t imagine they’ll lose much sleep over my opinion. They are
talented but only as talented as a million other similar acts on the local
circuit.
I noticed that Notts TV were
filming, so three people will get the chance to see clips of the show on a loop
for the next ten years in between the documentary about the Bolero. That’s
obviously a joke; Notts TV won’t last ten years.
After the interval it was the
turn of Shelter Point. Of all the acts that should not have worked at a show
like this, they actually did a brilliant job. As an electronic act it was nice
to see a real orchestra adding something to their sound when they could just as
easily done the same thing at home on a laptop. Although quite understated in
terms of stage presence, (after all it was just two men standing behind
keyboards and other noise makers) they made up for it in terms of substance
over style, producing some hauntingly beautiful ditties with their toys,
voices, an occasional guitar and piano, and for one night only of course, the
orchestra.
Nottingham should really have
invested in a decent Bugg repellant (see what I’ve done there?) to prevent the
onslaught of singer/guitarists when it had the chance. There are a lot of
talented musicians in this fine city but you could throw a stone and hit a solo
performer who sounds just like everyone else. Whoever decided on the running
order should, to use one of my dad’s sayings, be fucked with a wire brush for
putting Joel Baker on as headliner. Having said that, the whole show’s lineup
was a bit arse about face to be fair.
Joel Baker casually walked
onto the stage declaring that it was a ‘bit fancy’ before getting down to
business. Not that he isn’t good at what he does, but the orchestral
arrangements saved him from sounding like any other of his ilk that can be
found at one of Nottingham’s many open mic nights.
With that, the show was over
for another year. It’ll be interesting to see whom this year’s success stories
turn out to be.
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