Rose

Gig night, and a new venue for me: Leeds’ Belgrave Music Hall.

Caoilfhionn Rose has been popping up on a few of the radio shows that I listen to, so it was good to have a chance to see her relatively inexpensively in an intimate and easy to get to venue.

Her music seems to be most often positioned as jazz (she’s on Manchester’s Gondwana Records, which is seen as a jazz/jazz-elecronica label) but it has strong folk tones and is at least adjacent to (and is as accessible as) dream-pop. Tonight’s instrumentation featured Caiolfhionn (pronounced Keelin) on keyboards, guitar and vocal, along with two accompanists, one on guitar and electronic gadgets and the other on saxophone and bassoon. So: dense layers, with clear vocals and instrumentation. James Heather played a solo piano support set.

The venue was laid out with a few rows of deep sofas and armchairs, a little bit of more conventional seating behind and side platforms with benches, which is where I put myself. There were only about 50 or so people there, but we enjoyed a great show. The room is above a renowned (and noisy) bar/pizza place, so in quieter moments  the noise did leak through from below, but for most of the time that wasn’t a big issue.  I think most of the events here are mainly standing some I return I may see how it feels on those sorts of occasions.

With my vinyl acquired and signed I set off home, only to find there were no trains running to Shipley - I eventually got back around midnight via Guiseley and a bus replacement for the last leg. Later than I like to be out on a work night but still worth it on this occasion.

I think I have one more (Christmas) gig to go and then that’ll be it for the year.