Okay catchup time. I fell behind early in January and never caught up.

This month’s bands

Bands I liked

The Wharves, Ultimate Painting, Sarcasm, Iceage, OAE Experience Ensemble, Menace Beach, Half Waif, Rose Elinor Dougall, Echobelly, Asylums, Freak, Cabbage, Black Honey, Sacred Paws, Pixx

Bands that were okay

Girl Ray, Shards and Strange Boy, Love Buzz, Alice Barlow, James Canty, Little Cub,

Bands I won’t be going out of my way to see again

Josh Vine, 924s, Throwing Snow, 

Best Gig

January was a really strong month. But the highlight was Black Honey, Cabbage and Freak. Although my view of Cabbage has since changed, at the time, I thought they were the real deal. Black Honey, were excellent as always.

Best new band

At the time, it was Cabbage. But due to the issues later in the year, I’ve no plans to see them again.

Albums of the Month

• Terrorist Synthesiser (EP) – Cabbage
• Young, Dumb and Full of… – Cabbage
• Lemon Memory – Menace Beach
• Stellular – Rose Elinor Dougall

Best photo

Seen better days.

A photo posted by Paul (@pahudson) on Mar 23, 2015 at 12:45pm PDT

Luckily tonight’s gig isn’t for some raucous rock band, who might literally bring the place down, instead it’s the Staves. Three sisters from Watford who sing some of the most sublime harmonies around.

Support for the evening comes from James Canty. He supported the Staves the last time I saw them and I remarked at the time about his relaxed engaging style. Tonight was more of the same. His music is inoffensive. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Nice tunes. Interesting stories. Nothing flash. What lifts everything is how engaged he is with the crowd using a nice line of self-depricating humour. He doesn’t appear to have any airs or graces and that definitely makes his performance enjoyable.

Tonight was the Staves album launch party. Much of the set was the new material which most of us hadn’t really had a chance to listen to. This can be a risk. But the sisters were clearly thrilled by the whole evening joking throughout with the audience. But even if they weren’t relaxed, with their ability to sing glorious harmonies, they could go on stage and sing the phone book and you’d be happy with what you’ve heard. So it helps when the new material is strong, with some instant classics on it. Towards the end, the girls were joined by Justin Vernon (Bon Ivor) who produced their album.