Maria Jordan, Benni Beard, Liar Liar, SNTAE and Homemade Lemonade live at The Park, Lancaster
Lancaster Music Festival (part one…)
Me and The Devil have an agreement. A contract, you might say. A deal struck a long time since for a case of rum and the love of a good woman. Not just any woman, of course, but one with azure eyes. I wasn’t cheap. Anyway, the Devil likes to make sure that I remember the deal I made and, to that end, he often sets me a pop quiz. This one is about the Lancaster Music Festival. At least I don’t have to sit the test when sober.
Question 1: Maria Jordan and her band? She’s wearing a black dress. She’s got black hair that falls over her eyes when she sings. Can she sing though? Yes, she can. Confident and yet far from cold, she knows how to sell her songs. Reminiscent of the likes of Maeve O’Boyle, Maria Jordan and her band show that musicianship and quality song writing will always triumph over fashion. Of her songs, “Love of My Life” stood out and it was the best of what was a very good bunch.
Question 2: Benni Beard? Yes, he does have a beard. He also has an acoustic guitar and a harmonica. There’s also a fair bit of humour in his intelligent songs about love and fate. Like most singer songwriters, he tends to drag each song on longer than he should and doesn’t really engage with his audience. However, there is something about the scope of his songs that suggests they could be made a lot bigger and better with a band. It’s all a matter of perspective.
Question 3: Liar Liar? There are four of them and they look young. Very young. No surprise then when they launch into a set of pretty conventional guitar driven indie pop. Energetic they certainly are but with a propensity for liberating other people’s riffs and bass lines, they might have problems differentiating themselves from the rest of the pack. Their case isn’t helped by rather dull and insipid lead vocals that were at odds with the general bounciness otherwise evident. Moving swiftly on…
Question 4: Say Nice Things About Everyone? Words very nearly fail me. They fail me because I’m laughing. Not in a bad way though. This duo are like some demented act that you might find hidden in the dusty caverns of the Edinburgh Festival. They don’t as much do songs as oblique sub two minute assaults on the senses. Anyway, you can’t fail to like any “band” that gets both Buchowski and tequila into the same song. They even get heckled by some post punk hippie and his dog. Actually, it was just the post punk hippie that was doing the heckling. I think the dog liked them.
Question 5: Homemade Lemonade? Technology is supposed to make life easier for us all. When you see an Apple laptop on a stage, you know that a fifteen minute delay due to technical issues is on the cards. Especially when Joe 90 is at the keyboard. Even when the laptop was assisted by all five young men, it’s fair to say that the result was an awkward mix of ambient electronica and power pop. However, I reckon it is early days for this band and time will no doubt bring focus to their music. For now, they have reminded me that I am hungry. Time for some fried food.
It was a self marked test, by the way and I got every question right as usual. Oh, the monkey is in the wheelhouse, the monkey is on the grog…
Reviewer: Handsome Bluesbunny
Review Date: 10 October 2009
Websites
Maria Jordan
Benni Beard
Liar Liar
SNTAE
Homemade Lemonade
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