Review: Lucie Silvas, Exchange

A late-ish arrival on a sweltering evening at a remodelled Exchange (nice airy bar area complete with non-painted windows but the same sticky floored ambience in the main room) found the place was already getting on for full with Jon Green on stage, acoustic in hand and armed with songs from both his day jobs (although touring guitarist and cowriter with Lucie Silvas he performs as the Bonfires and has co-written tunes with a bus load of other artists). Greene played an engaging set of tunes, well-crafted and delivered with passion leavened with self-deprecating humour. Golden was to have a special awe inspiring arrangement but a false start had him admitting he’d “…fucked up…” and he also confessed to singing above his range and “…fucking up his voice for the backing vocals later”. Lights Out and Long Gone (?) were both damn fine songs but the up-tempo set closer Roll Away the Stone (?) was the standout tune.

The room was tightly packed by the time Lucie Silvas and her band took to the stage for her first Bristol appearance in ten years, her audience a pleasantly disparate bunch of folk representing all sorts of demographics and clearly people who’ve been with her for a while. Familiar faces were acknowledged throughout the set by Silvas herself; all present were word perfect on the tunes, a sweaty choir for What You’re Made Of and even singing along to tunes not yet recorded. The band / crowd vibe was great too, a genuinely shared experience with plenty of banter; stand out comment a lasciviously delivered “Strap on!” as Silvas, well, strapped on her mandolin, inducing much smutty giggling on stage. Silvas has an eclectic repertoire to draw upon, she’s been doing this a long time and has a knack of writing roots based tunes with a sassy pop nous that ensures hooks and ear worm choruses abound. There’s a pleasing nod to the blues throughout the set, and certainly plenty of country too, but these songs aren’t trapped in a genre ghetto and aren’t afraid to aim for the mainstream. Villain was the most memorable of the slower cuts, with Silvas on keys; new tune Just for the Record engaging lyrically and already sounding complete but the most satisfying song was Two Birds One Stone, which really did alchemise the roots influences with a savvy catchy lyric resulting in a memorable little gem.

Of course a stylistically eclectic set requires a crack band and fortunately Silvas brought along a band that could play a bit. Jon Greene stuck with his acoustic, adding colour to the tunes and delivered sympathetic backing vox despite the larynx abuse during his support slot. In fact he and bass man Jamie Sefton joined with Silvas for some exquisite three way harmonies throughout the set – notably on Alone. Tom Meadows’ drumming was solid (and bloody loud) whilst Ben Mark played great lead throughout, understated on the quiet numbers, a few burning solos on the up-tempo numbers and really came in to his own on Shame, delivered with southern rock heft and allowing him to shine with a cracking bottle neck solo. The whole band seemed to have the most fun on a mid-set cover of That’s all Right, dispatched with a greasy rockabilly swagger that got the crowd bopping.

Despite the heat the set was a pretty non-stop ninety minutes of tunes, although mid set Silvas declared she’d made a massive wardrobe error for the night and “would never wear these clothes again”. Said outfit best being described as country go-go dancer – black off the shoulder blouse, black hot pants that even Kylie Minogue might feel were a tad snug and thigh high black boots. Not necessarily the smart choice given the sweatbox conditions throughout. The set closed with You Got It, Orbison’s song taken down beautifully to a gospel pace and delivered with laid back passion. The encore was never in doubt as Silvas and the band nailed Breathe In and Greene and Silvas alone topped the night off with a beautifully stripped back Pull the Stars Down.

All pix by John Morgan