Arts writer Petra Gent was at Saturday night’s Live Expressions at the Ritzy, an acoustic music evening striving to showcase London’s new and emerging artists, hosted in Brixton.
My trip to the Ritzy on Saturday 24 January was my third visit to one of Dion Deverill’s Live Expressions nights, and as always he had gathered together an interesting line up of acoustic acts for the evening.
There was a friendly buzz in the room as the audience anticipated each new performer and the atmosphere was enhanced by the presence of a larger than life 3D bird man perched on the balcony behind us.
First up in tonight’s line up was 22 year old Becky CJ. Her songs cleverly coupled relationship angst with everyday themes, at the same time as being delivered with an impressively powerful voice. Between songs she comfortably chatted to the audience about her lack of ‘happy songs’, although her upbeat performance of these sad numbers kept the audience engaged.
Gareth Esson brought to the stage a much gentler tone. With songs about superheroes and single beds, his soulful voice with subtle vibrato accents charmed us all, as he interspersed each song with comments about how nervous he was. It was clear as he became more relaxed that there was real power in his voice and his Jack Johnson guitar style complemented this perfectly.
The first band of the evening were Loose Mooring Acoustic. With Jasmine Harper on vocals and the writing and performing talents of singer/songwriters Roy Hudson and Will Pike, this brought definite folk feel to the evening. Some gorgeous harmonies and intricate guitar interplay, there was a satisfying creative chemistry on the stage.
TIN – (Things I’m Not) brought a ripple of excitement to the room as they carried on unphased after slight technical problems. The slightly eighties poppy rhythmic synth and funky guitar riffs were all sure to get the Ritzy moving, but it was the powerfully luscious vocals that really gripped everyone. An impressive performance, particularly as this was their first performance after a three year break.
I don’t know how many of you stayed till the end but I’m glad I did. Mei The Music where not on the flyer, but they where headlining that evening. I stayed there and watched there whole set, and man I was blown away. The energy on stage, musicality, vocal harmonies the whole set was a journey. Looking forward for the next one and more Mei 🙂
Eyyyyyyyyyyyyyyu what bout mei the music the were killer the brought smiles and and life to the night
JonTheVolver I totally agree! *dramatic gasp* How could you forget Mei the Music?!! They were so great!
What about Mei The Music (hope I’m pronouncing it right)?? They were easily the best and most dynamic act of the night!!!!