Livemusic.fm

Andrew Sloman introduced a full seven piece band to the achingly cool, relatively new, Hoxton venue: Zigfrid Von Underbelly (or just 'Underbelly' to his friends!)

I'd witnessed first hand Sloman's carefully crafted acoustic pop ballads at the equally hip and trendy Hoxton venue Bar Music Hall back in January, and had been mightily impressed. The backline of appropriatley named Arthur Bassingham on bass, and Mike Terrel on drums, had been tighter than a pair of Hoxton indie kids spray-on, low-slung jeans - and provided a perfect platform for the virtuoso singer-songwriter that is Andy Sloman.

So despite being late for the performance - as I was half-way across the other side of town - I was frankly champing at the bit with anticipation to hear how good the songsmith's deceptively simple yet intricate arrangements would sound when backed up by the "Mizenus Quartet" ( consisting of Elen Richards - Violin, Gwen Richards - Violin, Francesca Hunt - Viola and Carina Drury - Cello )

The first number I caught was the superbly written Silence - a number where Bassingham and Terrel craft every note and beat, providing a perfect accompaniment to Sloman's vocal lines and understated acoustic harmonies. Unfortunately, the strings were too low in the mix and for me just distracted from the power of the number ... this continued, with a mixture of mild feedback and an overly-garrulous audience, through Deadwood and The Machine, which was a crying shame. The strings section was certainly visually arresting, but that meant Sloman was shoved to one side of the stage and almost lost both visually, and even sometimes audibly, as the sound engineer tried to balance all the elements on stage. Bass and drums remained the rock though, and fortunately carried the songs through the first few numbers.

Now let's get back to that noisy crowd eh? When I'd seen Andy at Bar Music Hall there had been audible silence from those frankly blown away by his song-writing - and the buggers who wanted to carouse and drink were all near the back and not able to distract those of us who wanted to listen. But at Underbelly I was minded of the notorius Damien Rice gig at Brixton Academy, where Rice abused the crowd for talking, shouting and whistling through his emotional 'quiet bits' ...

"Youse can all come up here and I'll give you yer money back for your tickets and then youse can all feck off to the pub if ya just wanna chat! If this is what it means to play bigger gigs you can keep it!"

Or something to that effect.

Of course Andy Sloman, auteur of a new generation of British troubadors though he might be, was far too much of a professional to lose his rag and soldiered on through a hubbub of occasional feedback and drunken Hoxtonites. You gotta admire his professionalism - and that of his band. Sloman's sound always reminds me a bit of the seminal arthouse band of the mid-90s The Auteurs and I guess that's no bad thing ... he just could have done with a more appreciative bohemian stereotype, rather than the noisy gobshites we actually had to put up with!

Nonetheless, by the time we'd got to Right to Know and the utterly exceptional Back on My Feet, the band had definitely risen above it all; and to the faithful at the front, started to really get into their stride. Just in time for the sound engineer to call time - which all seemed a bit premature.

So in conclusion - I think that had the line-ups been reversed for the two venues (e.g. the 7-piece plus strings at Bar Music Hall and a fully amped up 3-piece at Underbelly) it would have worked better. And in fact that is exactly what will be happening on 28th May, so I'd definitely recommend going down to Bar Music Hall and catching some of the unique brand of understated, lovingly crafted, pop balladeering which define Andy Sloman and his extended band.

http://www.myspace.com/andrewsloman