The Everyday Gig Review Roundup (March '22)

As live events start to pick up again, we’ve been getting ourselves out to gigs and enjoying the lighter evenings.

Jumping into the new month with both feet, Fran Pope spent a couple of hours escaping reality with dreamy performances by Dana Gavanski and Naima Bock at Bristol’s Exchange and Von Cake heads to the Bristol Jazz and Blues Festival to check out an old favourite of hers, Emily Breeze.

Emily Breeze ~ Jodie Mellor ~ The Tonic Sessions

Presented by The Bristol Jazz & Blues Festival and Bristol Beacon.

Words and images by Vonalina Cake

Emily Breeze has been on the music scene in Bristol for well over a decade exploring many styles and evolving into a sort of glossy, seedy backroom singer with a ton of charisma and her trademark subtle snarl. I’m a big fan. She’s also a lecturer at Bimm Institute in Bristol bringing on a whole new generation of singer/songwriters. Finding most of the band and some friends outside as I arrived was just the welcome I needed. After warm greetings I ventured inside to find a spot. This was a seated performance which felt weird for Emily Breeze as it’s usually in a slightly less formal setting with sticky floors.

Jodie Mellor arrives on stage with her guitar and brings us all into her world. YouTube was Jodie’s first platform for getting her music heard and with her stripped down covers of “frilly” (from her website) pop songs and an amazing talent for hitting a complex range of notes, I was quickly won over. I’m not much of a frilly pop song fan but I often find something new and enticing in them when all the fluff is taken away. Singing of the real world, and real feelings, Jodie’s self-penned numbers were good too.

Then it is time for the main act. Emily Breeze has got some serious live music credentials. Many comparisons have been made, I won’t. Emily is raw, vulnerable and powerful as she delivers the sometimes surreal and twisted subject matters of her songs. As they work through their album Rituals released in September 2019, we’re once again reminded of how tight they are. Emily leading with her white Gretsch and commanding posture, always with exceptional shoes, Andy Sutor on drums watching all the time for cues and clues, Graham Dalzell on bass being that dark space between the rest of the band, Rob Norbury on lead guitar shredding it like our very own Mick Ronson (ok, just one comparison) and Helen Stanley, a relative newcomer to the group, really finding her feet with her expressive and trippy synth. Taking over from Duncan Fleming, Helen has very much made this her own and shines brightly. With all of the band lending beautiful harmonies to match Emily’s vocals, dripping with emotion and allure, the layers of sound wash over us.

With a new album coming later this year, we got to hear fresh songs; there’s something about this band that makes every first listen feel like it’s a hit already. They’ve been spending a lot of time in the studio and it shows; slick as grease, well practised and relaxed. I’ve listened to Rituals a lot in lockdown so hearing those songs played live again was like seeing old friends. Emily is a poet born of poets, it’s in her genes. Her songwriting is special and there are so many lyrics that resonate. In Ego Death every line is a work of art, and it cuts through the everyday bullshit and gets to the heart of what, probably, most of us are really thinking.

From the forthcoming album in Autumn, The Bell is a song with a proper good shouty chorus. It’s about going for just one drink and getting caught up in one of those accidental best nights out. I was quickly singing along with the line “Fuck it, tomorrow’s gonna be alright!” and I don’t think I was alone.

Once again Emily and her miraculous troupe have delivered us from humdrum and blessed us on our journey back to normalville with a glint in our eyes and a hint of elevated joy at permission to indulge our revenge fantasies.

Dana Gavanski (with support from Naima Bock) @ The Exchange, Bristol. Wednesday 2nd March 2022.

Words by Fran Pope.

On Wednesday, March 2, Bristol Exchange welcomed Dana Gavanski and her band to its main stage, with Naima Bock providing support.

The snug performance space soon filled up with a crowd of all ages, sipping craft beers and settling into the intimate atmosphere.

First up was Naima Bock, a London-based singer-songwriter who has been forging her own musical path since leaving her previous band, Goat Girl, in 2019. She has collaborated extensively with fellow musician Joel Burton (of Viewfinder) on her EPs and studio albums, although her current tour supporting Dana Gavanski sees her performing solo.

Naima began her set with minimal introduction, and the opening bars of her first song almost came as a surprise; her cut-glass voice, wide vocal range, and deep, assured tones belying her calm demeanour. Against the clean notes of her acoustic guitar, her songs stirred up light and shadows. With acrobatic melodies and a sound very much her own, she nonetheless brought out something of other strongwomen of folk – Vashti Bunyan, Kate Stables, Nico – without emulating them, and just enough to conjure up golden light and strange, half-remembered glimmers of other times.

The colour and shape of her live set was very different from her recorded material: while the latter is richly furnished with backing vocals, percussion, and other instruments, her solo performance was not only more intimate and stripped down, it was also more haunting and evocative, particularly noticeable on songs such as 30 Degrees and Every Morning, which were indescribably beautiful.

Check out Naima’s Linkt.ree. page for tickets, music, and merch. You can also buy her tracks directly on Bandcamp.

Next, Dana Gavanski and her band took to the stage among curious set pieces including a chair with hands and a lopsided vase of white-painted sunflowers. The subtly circus-like vibe was accentuated by Dana’s outfit of primary colours, ruffled black silk, and a gravity-defying red circle of a hat.

Dana is a Canadian singer-songwriter from Vancouver, now based in London. Her first EP Spring Demos came out in 2017, followed by Wind Songs in 2020. She has also released two studio albums, Yesterday is Gone (2020) and When it Comes (2022), both on Full Time Hobby.

Chatty and ludic (“Is my hat still on?”), Dana delivered a set whose light, folk-pop whimsy was balanced by thumping drums and elastic basslines. Keyboard backing – and, in one song, harpsichord – added brightness and a childlike, almost naïve quality that matched her lyrics and their sense of a simpler world. Indigo Highway had a particularly coloured-bricks, music-box-type feeling about it, with its mosaic of ascending arpeggios and its gentle words: “When you come over and visit me, we’ll sit by the willow tree.” Catch had a more surfy, sixties twist, with sliding guitars and late-summer haze.

This was truly afternoon-sun music; music for kicking through grass and watching spring clouds; good-mood music with a nostalgic shimmer.

Dana Gavanski’s music and merch are available on her Bandcamp page, and you can find out more via her website.

In addition, check out upcoming events at the Exchange here.

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