Set List

• Wouldn’t That Make You Feel Good
• Flies
• On the Subject of Breathing
• Algorithms
• A Way
• Epilogue
• But I come back down
• The Trouble Is
• Paper Cups
• Wait
• To Be Loved
• Transparent
• Still
• To be Brave
• Help Yourself
• A Way

The space wasn’t big. I was expecting Bryde to play a solo set, but surprisingly it was an intimate full set. I can see in Bryde the creative tension, lockdown has caused. Her last album was hardly toured, while the new album needs to be played and she has already moving on to her next album and wants to start to put new songs in to the set. Meanwhile, both her albums are still new to us. The set list showed this tension. Songs from the last two albums fighting for space. The natural selection of songs that make the long term set list hasn’t happened yet. It must be so difficult for artists who have two albums to tour.

Sadly. With it being an intimate show. I felt I had to put the camera in silent mode and use the small fixed lens backup Fuji I had with me. (Not that the other photographers did). However, the LED lights were interfering with my camera. So you can see interference patterns in many of the photos. But they give you and idea of the evening.

• The Trouble Is
• 80 Degrees
• Fast Awake
• Algorithms
• Wait
• ??
• ??
• Hill I’m Dying On
• To Be Loved
• Honey
• Help Yourself
• To Be Brave
• Files
• Still
• Less

Thankfully, tonight, Oslo seem to have dialled back their policies and it felt like a normal gig. If this is now standard practice, then I will go to more gigs here. 

Opening the evening was a rusty Lindsay Munroe. The set was rather pleasant, as was Lindsay, apologising for singing a sad song, ‘Andrew’. It wasn’t particularly sad and it didn’t alter the flow of the upbeat set. Stoping regularly to retune, unfortunately, Lindsay kept rushing her retunes, causing her to stop songs. Personally, I don’t mind mistakes. They add a human touch. But there wasn’t any need to rush. The audience were very accommodating. 

Next up, TIIVA wasn’t my type of music, mainly electronic but thankfully with live drums and accents of bass and sax. Performance wise, TIIVA were pretty good. Though I felt most of the songs were lyrically repetitive often comprising of a verse and then a repeating chorus for the rest of the song. In fairness, this allowed TIIVA to move around the stage and perform each song, which she did really well. But the music didn’t work for me.

During lockdown Bryde released ‘The Volume of Things’, her second solo album. This was meant to be the tour for that album and sadly this was our first opportunity to hear many of these songs live. It also featured a few songs from her forthcoming third album, released later this year. This gap is meaning many great albums aren’t being given their chance to shine as artists understandably hit the studios when they were unable to tour and have their minds on new music. It will be interesting to see how many of these songs stay in the set.

The thing I love about Bryde is how she switches from quiet to loud so effortlessly in her songs. Something played to great effect on her first album. She moved from the ‘Paper Aeroplanes’ folksy sound to sprinkle in a more direct rock sound allowing her to change up songs. It worked really well. Her latest album turns down the notch slightly and makes less use of these changes. But the mix tonight of a more laid back sound interspersed with songs from the first album worked really well and there was a really nice flow which helped showcase Bryde’s fantastic vocals.  Closing the evening was my highlight. ‘To Be Brave’ effortlessly sliding into ‘Less’. A really fine set.

Set List

• Paper Cups
• The Trouble is
• Peace
• Wouldn’t that make
• Honey
• To Be Loved
• Wait
• Silver Suns
• 80 Degrees
• Algorithms ??
• Flies
• To Be Brave
• Less

It’s been a few years since I had been at St Pancras Old Church and Bryde playing there seemed to be a great reason to visit. Bryde made one of my favourite albums of 2018 so this was always going to be a special gig.

What I didn’t expect was for the gig to be so stripped back. Bryde had left her band behind, but brought along her talented friends. It was mainly just Bryde and her guitar. But the stripped back nature allowed her friends to add new dynamics to her live songs, by adding cello, piano and extra vocals. It was a beautiful evening in a beautiful church.