Espers @ Bush Hall

Went to see Espers with Hywel at The Bush Hall on Wednesday. Sadly it clashed with an Evan Parker gig at The Vortex that Julian was coming up for. Billie went along to that and met up with Adam there. Ironically Hywel has been trying to see Evan Parker for years. After buying a poster, which I told him would get crumpled (it did), we went upstairs and endured the support acts, at least up there we could lounge around on the leather sofas and not risk upsetting anyone with our bitchy gabbing, as it was almost empty. First up was a solo geezer going by the name of Hush Arbors, I'd probably slag him off something rotten if he'd done anything that made his performance remotely memorable. Next was Edith Frost, who's been around for years, and had more merchandise available than the headliners. Sadly the monotony of an adequately strummed electric guitar, and a voice ordinaire coupled with utterly forgettable songs, with seemingly no variation, modulation or syncopation, meant that no one else had a go on the sofa.

We went downstairs and mingled for Espers, maybe we'd been two remote for the first acts, and if we'd only come downstairs perhaps....no, no they were rank. We were hardly set up for a mind-blowingly lovely evening, but we got one anyway. They are six piece, with a droney cello to the fore, and one of the most beautifully ethereal female singers I've ever heard. She was counterpointed by the occasional vocal from Greg Weeks, the guitar player, his vocals were weedy, but in a good Canterburyesque sort of way, and his guitar playing, fuzzed up with oceans of reverb, was basic but sublimely appropriate. There were predictable points of reference, a more acidy Fairport Convention, or a more folky Velvet Underground, but as with any talented band they were able to transcend those and establish their own unique sound. It's very rare and extremely refreshing these days, I think, to find a band really playing together as a band and enhancing each others contributions in a more than the sum of their parts sort of way. And in a year of great gigs, this was definately up with the best.