"Terminal Star" - on reflection an interesting first song, but there was no hint of irony as Karine Polwart and her band kicked off their first appearance in Birkenhead, and our first time seeing them play live. Not that we were unfamiliar with their work, having been anticipating this gig for weeks following several CD purchases and lots of time on MySpace. The song starts quietly and builds nicely, with Karine's brother, Steve, playing 12 string electric guitar and bassist Kevin and vocalist Inga both playing melodicas - Inga's being a rather posh looking bass version, indeed from where we were sat, it looked like a large breathalyser test kit! Drummer Matty started out with a gentle rhythm using felted heads, moving onto brushes as the song progressed, while Inga moved to accordion and Kevin to his bass - by now the song had us all captivated and we knew we had come to something special.
It was almost intantly apparent that Karine had surrounded herself with a fine set of musicians, not just for the album or the tour, but seemingly for the long haul, with her brother Steve, and her husband Matty representing family, Inga also shares their house and while I don't know about Kevin, I expect he is a regular visitor, because the band is so together and their performance so intricate that it has to be a matter of constant practice and familiarity with each other. Matty's rhythms weave their way through the band's sound, rarely using anything much heavier than brushes, his style is restrained and yet underpins the whole thing, while Kevin's upright bass is very much "plugged in", but also has a delicate feel to it, even when the strings are occasionally bowed.
Moving through the set, with "Only One Way", "Daisy" and "Hole in the Heart", my notes are all about subtle, complex, delicate and powerful - the sound as really good, with different voices dropping in and out of the songs to maintain the fine texture of the music, and yet when Steve got to play his lead break in "Hole in the Heart", it was loud, but by no means overpowering. Karine's songs are more than worth listening to, her tunes and her lyrics are in a class of their own and are well matched, while Karine's lead vocals are superbly augmented by Inga Thompson's harmony's which sound so fragile and delicate, but are another key element in the band's sound. Inga (who is originally from Shetland) also provides some fine accordion playing, but rarely in the traditional manner of accordions, more like long washes of sound that came over like tangible atmosphere.
"Take its Own Time" and "Holy Moses" were the next 2, slightly slower songs, with 2 acoustic guitars in play for "Holy Moses" ("lovely" I noted) and also into "Waterlilly" - a favourite here, so very very powerful and further highlighting Inga's vocal talents. Karine explained the story behind the song, her usual aversion to telling "same old story" being reversed into a declaration of intent to always tell this one further tale of horror from Bosnia's store of many such, and sang it with great feeling - her face showing the pain of the lyrics.
The first half wound up with "The Good Years", featuring 4 part harmony, bowed bass, 2 acoustic guitars and is due to appear in a new album of Scottish music any time now.
Part two opened with "Maybe There's a Road" and featured Steve on electric 12 string and demonstrated the band's subtle use of instrumentation, fading voices in and out throughout the song rather than having them all blasting away at once. This song also featured the bass being used where the bass drum might have been used. "You put me back together again" saw Inga playing her triangle, then the single "I'm going to do it all someday" provided us with smooth 4 part vocal harmonies and a knockout electric guitar break - one of those parts that make me want to learn to play the guitar!
The band sloped off then and left Karine to deliver her one of her contributions to the latest Radio Ballads series - "You Can't Weld A Body" - a very good song in the Robert Wyatt - Shipbuilding mould - well not mould - genre? - via J Love anyway. You'll get my drift - and it let us listen to Karine's guitar playing which was well worth it, she plays with a lovely tone, and her voice is good and strong. The seriousness of this song was counterbalanced by "John Clark", a wee bit of fun about a gas fitter.
"Where the Smoke Blows" fairly rattled along, with a short lead break and a 4 part vocal section that sounded almost Scandinavian for a moment, vocal harmonies also featuring strongly in "The Sun's Comin' Over the Hill" which may have been even slower than the CD version, leading into the last song - a rocking version of "Waiting".
For the encore we got "The News" and "Follow the Heron" and it occurred to me here that Karine sometimes sounds a little like Tracey Thorn in her earlier days. The band were excellent - making best use of the voices available, giving individual instruments space when required and some really fine touches - the last note of the performance delivered without any show by Matty drawing the bass bow across the edge of a cymbal - a neat and rather typical touch from this band.
Karine Polwart deserves to go far - certainly we would be happy to travel to hear her perform again - a good indicator of any artist's popularity in this house!
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