After a gruelling day's teaching, I toddled off to see The Unthanks last night, supported by Johnny Kearney and Lucy Farrell (who we missed because I was teaching so late). Props to the people who stole our reserved seats at the front, by the way. You just can't trust the old. They'll nick anything.
Turnout was low because the inhabitants of A Dark Place are brutish ingrates (all the other venues sold out), but it appeared to bother the band not a jot. There were ten of them on stage, all multi-instrumentalists. Singers nipped round to take over on drums, the pianist played lap steel, the cellist had a glockenspiel and banjo, a violinist also played trumpet and the viola player sometimes switched to trombone. The singers (the Rachel and Rebecca Unthank) even did some clog dancing.
My 17-year old self would have committed hara-kiri if he'd suspected that he'd one day end up watching clog dancing. That kid was a dick. The clog-dancing was utterly cool - especially as the band were all togged out in stylish cocktail dresses and the like. Except for the three men.
The Unthanks were so good that my vocabulary feels utterly inadequate to express the range of styles and emotions they covered. They'd segue from a bleak ballad to a heartbreaking shanty to a raunchy Tindersticksy/jazzy number, some of them covers of tracks I'll now have to track down, all interspersed with hilarious banter. I particularly liked 'Here's a song about wanting to kiss a boy. Don't worry though, we've made it sad to match all our other songs because we don't want to shock anyone'.
It was a great show, and the band chatted away happily to fanboys (thanks for the teasing, Emma) afterwards without any showiness - I guess that comes from the folk scene. So I came home with a signed poster and CDs.
Here are a couple of tracks: Frank Higgins' 'The Testimony of Patience Kershaw', based on teenage girl's life as a miner in the 1830s (how folk can you get), notable for the girl's words and the beautiful string arrangement (I love viola solos).
7 comments:
I thought I recognised something about the second video - it's at Band on the Wall, where the Manchester Blog Awards were held.
The lead singer in the blue of the second video- she can be Mrs Demented Demon if she plays her card right.
Holy cow Demented Demon! I don't want her, but I want her dress and shoes!
Let's kidnap her; you can have the clothing whilst I serenade her with my soulful exquisite voice. Some say I have the voice of Tom Jones but I merely downplay my brilliance in the shower-song contest.
Why has no one pointed out the use of the sentence "the clog dancing was utterly cool"
We are through the looking glass here people.
I don't care what you think, Ben. It was cool. Strangely erotic too, if you really want to know.
Do you think I want to know that you find clog dancing strangely erotic? Are you going to have clogtextsex with the Unthanks?
Vole: I want you to put on your clogs.
Unthank: Aye, and what will I dee than?
etc...
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