St Andrews Radio

Music is Love presents… Vetiver (opening act: The OK Kids) – Venue 1, Students’ Union St Andrews, 2nd December 2011

Much to everyone's pleasure, Venue 1 was shrunken to a much more real-venue friendly size. The stage was set with a touching splash of blue fairy lights and what would a Music is Love gig be without their charming record collection strung across the front of the stage? As I arrived at the venue, early enough to hear a bit of soundcheck due to faulty rumors of the gigs starting time ( #myfriendsaredaft), I was looking forward to seeing The Ok Kids, one of the bigger bands in our local scene, play live, as I had until that night not witnessed a full set, and was intrigued about the "psych folk veterans", whom I had certainly never heard of, play their live set that had been described as the sound of summer.

The Ok Kids took the stage to a slowly filling house with an unfortunately empty middle floor. This was probably due to all the seating being strung along the sides of the venue. This seemed to affect the performers who started out their pre-play talk a little bit unsure and a little bit nervous as to how the crowd would treat them. Once their set started however, led by minor St Andrews celeb Tom Burns' shouting of "1...2...3...4!", it was apparent that this group knew how to treat both audience and stage. Their tunes were both a medley and mashup of well harmonized pop/rock and what PITCHFORK2006 would have called "indie". Apart from one song, which felt a bit like unfinished filler, the general set proved to be killer with the audience generally clapping and hooting loudly. Their frontman showed a very special bravado on their cover of 'Helter Skelter' hitting notes that would send most alto's into shock, and harmonized quite comfortably with their bassist and in an end of set treat, the entire band at the front of the stage. There may have even been a hipster or two tapping his fingers against the side of his charity shopped, or grandmother thieved sweater to the beat of a well managed drum kit and the well sung tunes of this hall ball favorite. It was great to hear original music being played at a live gig by a St. Andrews band. I can think of no others that would have suited the role of opening act better at this show.

After a comfortable break where I loaded up on water, I waded past the Greenpeace booth, a stormtrooper and a hefty crowd of people now flocking to the Vetiver half of the gig. Inside I saddled up next to the folks from Bubble TV ready to let audio orgasms rip through my ears from what had been hyped up to be the sound of summer clearing the cold and gloomy winter away from St Andrews; the sound of strolling. It was the latter half of the description that seemed most apt for the overall depiction of Vetiver's performance. They were indeed until their fourth of fifth number the "sound of strolling". The band was filled with talented musicians, the drummer able to keep his cymbals from berating the eardrums of the audience, and the guitarists whipping up some charming solos, but, as the crowd tended to agree by the loud hum of chatter that started towards the end of the second tune, Vetiver were the kind of band you listen to as you strolled on past, a great backing track to summer, but certainly not the one being played on the car stereo. Andy Cabic's sultry tones and lyrics were unfortunately lost in the mid level jumble of notes that provided the backdrop for innumerable conversations. This was unfortunate because as they got into some more varied numbers it seemed that they had lost a lot of the audience apart from some of the more adroit listeners and musicians sitting at the front of the rabble in the middle of the venue. Towards the end of the set, the band and audience seemed to pick up in spirits, although it could very well have been the drink flowing. The gig did close with a successful splash of summer.

Mulling over some final drips of water, and letting the last chords of what could have been my friend's music conservatory's lounge band, though of course they are not touring with the illustrious Fleet Foxes, waver from the stage of Venue 1, a thought flickered through my head. If people are going to show up in minor droves for the second half of a fairly early show and then talk through the bulk of it, why not get some Mermaids to don some laid back costumes, coupled with instruments, and move around slowly on stage to the sounds of an iPod? The answer for some I think will be because live music is just magically better. But, without a performance, besides an audience's drive to look cool and be around hip people, I certainly don't register a difference.