Friday 26th September saw acts from Bridlington and Leeds converge in Scarborough for a night of quality original music at the Cask and Keg, downstairs in the Cask Club.
Opening the evening with a solo acoustic set was Nick Tudor. A regular on the scene since the very early nineties, his continuing creative output could be seen in the fact that the night’s set contained all fairly recent songs (from within the past four years, by my reckoning). Nick’s songwriting takes influence and inspiration from sources such as Neil Finn, The Smiths and Bruce Springsteen. Lyrical melodies and bolstering choruses drive a great opening set, with Nick balancing the right amount of chat and music to build the rapport in the room. The set included Last Taxi on the Promenade and I Just Can’t Decide for Myself – both of which and many more are available online.
Blue Orchid Reaction hail from Leeds; they’ve shared the stage a few times with Scarborough’s own The Northern Riots, and in style are perhaps not dissimilar, with indie-rock blends and a fairly affable, occasionally anarchic sensibility to their style. They merged originals, such as Matt’s Got A Job (which I particularly took a shine to), with some choice covers, including Electric Six: Danger! High Voltage, Amy Winehouse: You Know I’m No Good, and a triple-hybrid of Talking Heads’ Psycho Killer x Britney Spears’ Baby One More Time x The White Stripes’ The Hardest Button to Button – which was very cool indeed. Again, decent banter – always a plus; check them out on various platforms.
Interestingly, the evening was originally intended to be a headliner for The Northern Riots but, as is sometimes the case, a rescheduling needed to happen so we’ll check them out again at a later date; meanwhile, an eminently suitable replacement was found in Brid’s Edge of 13. Their indie-rock guitar sounds are catchy and defy you not to move – there were certainly a good number of fans making their moves on the floor. The set included the entirety of their recent EP, Donkey Bridge Disco, which is a very fine five-track package which you can check out now on Bandcamp. Go on, off you go…
All in, a well-blended evening of indie, guitar-driven enjoyment, performed by experienced and talented originals bands from home and away – don’t fail to check these acts out if you see them on a line-up, and keep supporting local live music across the Yorkshire Coast.
Links:
