 Flook's Roots Around the World |
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Saturday, October 27 2007 @ 03:59 PM BST
Author: Dan. Views: 25
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There are a few things you expect from a folk gig.
Cracking tunes; strange anecdotes and rambling stories between songs; some hearty audience participation; and a mention of 'our friend Rory McLeod'. Flook, playing as part of the Roots Around The World series, deliver them all.
The band are a four piece; Sarah Allen on flute and accordian, Ed Boyd on guitar, John Joe Kelly on bodhran and Brian Finnegan on tin whistle and flute. There's almost a fifth member; Sarah has brought eight month old Maisy on tour, and although she's offstage the whole time she gets fairly frequent mentions.
The songs are all good, jigs and reels delivered with a punkish energy and puckish humour; and slower, more atmospheric pieces played with power and passion. Of course, while singer-songwriter folk relies on a good tale, instrumental folk is often tied to a place and time. We have songs tonight inspired by Scottish roads, fell running, the Asturian landscape and in 'Gone Fishing' an appointment with an osteopath in London. That appointment did lead to a romance which led to Maisy though, so was probably less boring than most visits to the doctor.
Overall, Flook are a little more subdued tonight than last time I saw them, at Brighton's Komedia, but that may be down to the venue. While the
Brighton venue was intimate, dark and loud tonight
at the Minerva Theatre the band are a little adrift from the audience, as playing in the
round means there's a good five metres between them and the bulk of the audience.
And while Flook previously pushed the boundaries with a little electronic experimentation and a driving, percussive sound - tonight, it's a little more acoustic and laid back Almost too laid back - at times the flute is very quiet and the accordian sounds almost unamplified in some of its earlier appearances. In fact, it's almost like 'Flook - Unplugged' which is no bad thing.
Things do take off though, with a magnificent bodhran solo from John Joe halfway through the second set, followed by a rousing return to stage for the full band that results in the audience stamping their feet until they're given an encore.
Living up to the name of this series of concerts, it was a set of tunes with roots all around the world, taking the audience on another memorable journey - as Flook have again confounded expectations, a veritable magical mystery tour.
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