This weekend saw a number of events up and down the country held under the banner of “We Shall Overcome” to celebrate music and culture, whilst showing solidarity to those hit by government cuts with Portsmouth’s contribution being in honour of our very own Arts and Soul Traders organisation – something which surprisingly wasn’t overly promoted by those taking to the stage, resulting in this ultimately being about a coming together of musicians from different styles which of course isn’t a bad thing either.
TOMMY DISFIGER
Opening with a cover of the Prodigy’s “Out of Space” armed with just his guitar and a broken laptop, there was a bit of an open mic feeling in the air, but soon enough Tommy Disfiger had moved on to his own style of one man punk rock with the pre-programmed drum beats replacing any additional musicians whilst interaction with the crowd put his songs into context.
As Tommy Disfiger made the generalisation all politicians and members of the press are a bunch of you know what’s, it wasn’t the sweeping statement that was the issue personally but the unnecessary reaction it received by a member of the audience – which rather than creating the chance for the person actually on stage to put his opinion across, was all rather confrontational and just made for an awkward end to the first set of the evening.
GARETH HOWELLS
Now this is a name that has been around on the local scene for a while, often found with his fellow band mates in Bemis, tonight Gareth was joined by a different couple of people whilst musically it could very easily have still been his main band performing.
Whereas the evenings opening act was more about the punchy delivery, Gareth Howells is all about well written songs – often sounding in the same vein as Neil Young or a reworking of Bob Dylan, which suits Gareth’s vocals and acoustic guitar playing well and whilst volunteers helped hold a temperamental speaker in place Gareth and co. battled on regardless providing a faultless performance.
CARL LEWIS: TRACK AND FIELD
Having reviewed their EP previously and already knowing some of their other projects I was intrigued to see how the rotating of instrument and vocal duties would come across for Carl Lewis live, for the three piece swap around after every couple of songs.
It may be a bit of a logistical nightmare for a sound engineer but if it wasn’t for being able to see who was playing what bizarrely the alternating of responsibilities isn’t always that obvious if you were to listen with your eyes closed, other than some tunes being more together than others but on the whole showing how the three guys feed off each-others influences both live and in the writing process.
The folky side of Carl Lewis: Track and Field also comes across, but there’s the addition of a slight country twang on some of the guitars alongside the mixture of punk rock ethos, then with guest backing vocals courtesy of the drummer from Robs other project The SLM for “The Awkward Ballad of Lena Jodo” the band end on a heavier and more frantic track than those before it.
FACTORY DOLLS
Headliners Factory Dolls were again a contrast to the rest of the bands on the bill, somewhere between the garage rock of the Stooges and a more modern and polished indie-rock band there were times when musically they were a little contrived but this didn’t matter for they have some good old rock n roll numbers to back it up.
Despite the bass player having practised all the right moves to create a strong stage presence up front this is a trio that are really all about the drummer at the back, not just because he takes on lead vocals but the use of the microphone doesn’t stop some cool drumming with nice little fills here and there which really help hold the songs together.
So although some of the crowd had already dispersed Factory Dolls were the right band to end the night on and even if the dodgy connection for the speaker had caused issues halfway through the evening, in the true spirit of the occasion this was indeed overcome and with four acts from different backgrounds it showed how we can truly work together and still create a difference – even if that’s just getting people together for live music and a pint of beer.
www.facebook.com/TheArtAndSoulTraders
www.weshallovercomeweekend.com
