Music / Festivals
Review: 6 Music Fest – Sunday, Colston Hall
Elbow frontman Guy Garvey opens the Festival this Valentine’s Day with a solo effort that isn’t too far in sound from his day job. Of course this isn’t a bad thing and songs like the languidly sorrowful Electricity showcase his soaring tenor to full effect. Garvey himself is charming, belying the dark nature of his music with jovial banter and anecdotes about ill fated family pets. Fist pumping his way across the stage to the rousing ramshackle of a closer Angela’s Eyes before manically attacking a synth, Garvey proves his showmanship regardless of who he’s fronting.
“This song is about escaping into the wild and experiencing trees” says Julia Holter of In The Green Wild, an unsettling number with its chanting “wa wa” refrain. The avant-garde queen of 2015, Holter’s album Have You In My Wilderness was met with critical acclaim with its enigmatic offerings of jazz and electronica infused art-pop. Sometimes verging on the inaccessible, Holter and her subtly powerful accompanying band always manage to pull back to the more tangible side of weird, particularly with the nostalgically airy Silhouette.
is needed now More than ever
I had hoped that the fabulous John Grant would be my Valentine, but alas his popularity (and unfortunate set timing on Radio 6’s part) saw long queues snaking around the stairs of Colston Hall. Still, Gilles Peterson and later Mount Kimbie provide decent entertainment in the meantime, pumping out beats from the concourse down below. Squeezing in for the last three songs of Grant’s set, it’s a brief love affair but well worth the wait: bitter and bruising, Grant’s lyrics are witty and sung effortlessly. “I am the greatest motherfucker that you’re ever gonna meet” he sings on GMF and the crowd certainly agrees.
Winding queues pop up for folk darling Laura Marling as well, although when she takes to the stage dressed all in white the audience is noticeably thinner. “This is way past my bedtime” she says and it seems to be for the crowd too. An accomplished songwriter for sure, Marling’s voice is expertly controlled, but her set threatens to fall into blandness at times and her band could have been better used to liven things up throughout the hour and a half she plays. Still, a chilling cover of Waitin’ Around to Die and her own brilliant Rambling Man are a joy to hear and perhaps Marling’s soft Irish folk is a good way to wind down the festival on a Sunday night.
Photos courtesy of BBC. Click here for more photos, features and clips from the 6 Music Festival.
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