I thought if you played an acoustic guitar...

Last night my #gigbuddy @artminx displayed some uncharacteristic sympathy for my car-free state and picked me up to accompany her to a gig in Lancaster.  It was to see a band that I'd never heard of for whom she's doing an animation to accompany one of their songs.

The venue, Yorkshire House, turned out to be a decent sized hall above a pub, so I took advantage of the fact that I wasn't driving to buy myself a pint (and to treat The Minx to an Appletiser).

The support act was just a chap with a guitar, which normally fills me with dread. A lot of what I enjoy in music is related to the sound, not just the chords and melodies. That said, I remember arriving at a Celtic Connections gig and the support band was one man and his acoustic guitar and he wasn't even singing! The man was Colin Reid and it was one of the best live performances I've ever seen, so I've learnt not to judge a musical book by its cover.

And, actually, the support, Paul Levy, turned out to be very good. Nice intricate, slightly unusual melodies skilfully picked out on the guitar, a good voice with decent lyrics and vocal melodies. I even treated myself to a second pint while I enjoyed his set.

Unfortunately the main event wasn't a band, just another chap with his guitar and, even more unfortunately, he was the manifestation of my musical fears! The couple of tracks I'd seen on YouTube (complete with drums, keyboards etc) had sounded like they'd be good live, especially in a small venue. But purely acoustically... no.

So, I amused myself taking photos and practising using my 'daily' camera in low light, which is where I really struggle with it (@artminx gets better results with her iPhone, usually). After a while I gave up on trying for technical success and tried to take a few more imaginative shots. This was the best of the bunch!