INTERNATIONAL POP OVERTHROW - WEDNESDAY (DAY 2)

GIG: International Pop Overthrow Liverpool – Day 2 (Wednesday)
DATE: Wednesday 14th May 2013
VENUE: Cavern Pub & Club, Mathew Street, Liverpool
COST: all free today

This is blog is intended to be a way for us to capture our personal memories from all the gigs we go to see. The International Pop Overthrow in Liverpool hosts over 150 artists, across 3 stages, ranging from solo acts with an acoustic guitar to full on rock bands covering different music styles from folk, pop, rock and everything in between!!!! Whilst we can’t see every artist / band, we try to catch as many as we can. Some we like, some we love, some are pure nuggets and some are just not our cup of tea. This is just our personal opinion of the acts we see through the IPO festival, highlights and lowlights included. If there’s a band we are not fond of, do still check them out as tastes differ and you could have a different opinion from us.

Bands seen today = 8
Matthew Pop, The Janne Borgh Identity, Split Sofa (twice), The Housekeeping Society, French Boutik, Junebug, DEON, Cherry Suede (part)
No of different bands seen so far = 19
CDs: none

Our second day started with act no 2 at the Pub. We were venturing into the unknown as the links on the IPO site did not lead us to any music for Matthew Pop. We had no idea what we were in for!. Matthew Pop are a three piece from Brooklyn. One song had a change of beat from the other songs and one had a kazoo part but in all, we were not overly impressed as most of the songs had a very basic drum beat and (maybe we are becoming more discerning) there was nothing new or adventurous in their sound. The guitarist had bought a new distortion pedal, and he was going to use it!

The Janne Borgh Identity

Next up was the second slot for the Swedish trio The Janne Borgh Identity.  Once again they played a brilliant set and it is clear that these are seasoned musicians who know their music inside out. The transient Wednesday afternoon Pub crowd was just that – transient, so there was a fair bit of coming and going which we feel the band felt to be a bit distracting. But that did not take away anything from the quality of this band’s music. Another storming set, with great vocals and good guitar. Some of the stand out songs today were "Queen of Karma” (well you need a song that has the rhyme with “melodrama”!!) and “Where The Heartaches Begin”. Their last song morphed a bit into Badfinger’s “Come And Get It” which worked really, really well. We were glad to have had the chance to see them for the second time.
Check out his music on his website www.janneborgh.com

The Janne Borgh Identity

Split Sofa from Derbyshire took to the stage next and they were right up The Beeb’s street……. A Gary Moore type of guitar player and a singer that sounded a bit like Noddy Holder from Slade. Their first song appeared to fizzle out a bit, almost as though they were just sound checking but the rest of the set was top notch. We also saw them do their second slot on the front stage of the Cavern Club just a couple of hours later. This second set sounded much tighter. We are not sure if they played different songs, but it did sound immensely better, and the acoustic guitar really cut through. There was quite a crowd gathering in the club for this early evening slot and with a solid rolling drum beat, Minty felt they were a different band to the one she had seen earlier! The Beeb of course, loved it all.

Split Sofa

The Housekeeping Society

The last act of the night in the Pub for us was Ric Neale’s band The Housekeeping Society. A Three piece, consisting of bass, keyboard/vocals and acoustic drums and the use of a laptop to bring in some “sounds” it was a set up you don’t usually see at the IPO. Ric has a very clear and strong vocal, which at times reminded us of Rufus Wainwright and he is very engaging with the audience. That rapport worked especially well when the pub erupted at the start of his last song. It WAS contrived, but was really funny and took even Ric by surprise.

French Boutik

French Boutik, from Paris was not Minty’s cup of tea at all. Their image is French chic. Their set up was keyboards, fuzzy guitar, bongos and a female lead vocalist who also played tambourine.

Junebug

Junebug are a firm favourite at the IPO. We feel like we have watched them grow up over the last eight years, and seen their terrific Powerpop sound mature and just get better and better. The blend of vocal harmony from brothers Guy and Ralph, the rocking guitar sound, along with the terrific drumming from Warren are a great combination, and delivers a  punchy, light hearted sound that really rocks and is worth checking out. This front stage set may have been the best we've seen from them. www.junebug.co.uk

Up next, DEON who have probably travelled the furthest this year to play at the Cavern – from Singapore, which despite David Bash's into, is NOT in Malaysia. The Republic of Singapore is a country in itself. With a few problems with the cymbals, it took a while to set up but once they got going what we heard was a sophisticated mix of vocal and music which moved from soft to a crescendo of rock. One song had been inspired from a visit to Iceland and as the guitar playing swam over you, it was easy to imagine being in an iced wilderness. This was another band who appreciate that vocals should win over gritty guitars!

Singapore's DEON

Cherry Suede

Our last band today was Cherry Suede from Canada. A two piece with acoustic guitars, they were quite country in a Kassidy kind of way and it worked well.

We caught only part of their set as we headed out to "Upstairs at Erics" to catch some of Ian McNabb's open mic night.