Go North

Mitchell Museum, The City Bar 11/06/09

Arriving early on Thursday afternoon, Inverness was already a hive of activity; lost-looking band types roamed the streets looking really quite lost, media and industry types sat drinking their diet Smirnoff Ices in the lobby of the delegates hotel (which doubled as one of the venues) looking smug and the city centre's woefully inadequate one-way system struggled to cope with the influx of vans and people carriers.

All of the participating venues (I say venues very loosely in regards to some of them!) were almost within spitting distance of each other, which really did create a kind of street party atmosphere, with bands running between venues to catch their mates bands after they had played and journalists running around in 15 minute intervals trying to catch as much as they could, however the only disappointment was that, for a free event, the local turnout could have been a lot stronger. I do remember thinking "I've never seen so many people from Glasgow in one place without actually being in Glasgow".

First up were the hotly-tipped Yahweh (**) in the City Bar, who, despite showing massive potential on record, suffered from a poor venue and an incompetent sound engineer (you know something is up when you tell you a local what venue you are headed to and they retort "oh, is it a hard-house thing you're going to then?"). A couple of tracks shone through, but it is difficult to gauge a sound as subtle as theirs in such a limiting environment. Verdict postponed. Next, and unfortunately still in the City Bar, were Mitchell Museum (****), a band who quietly get better every time I see them. Their set now bristles with perfect wonky pop hooks and crazy-man harmonies, and not even a still-woeful sound could dampen their energetic brilliance. If this band continue to build as they have done, the record companies will be knocking on the door for sure if they haven't begun to already. 

Faced with a dilemma, we chose to miss the excellent French Wives and Bronto Skylift this time around and opted instead for The Boy Who Trapped The Sun (****) aka Colin MacLeod, singer-songwriter extraordinaire from the Isle of Lewis. Recently signed to Geffen and having played next-to-everything on his forthcoming debut release The Home E.P, he possesses a music arsenal that most mere-mortals would kill for. Live (and performed solo on this occasion), the record's laid back, bluesy folk is delivered with amazing tenderness that you makes you feel like you should be watching this in some run-down barn out in the countryside, not a nondescript city centre hotel lobby. 

This is where things got a bit congested and we started running between venues to catch everything, so bear with me!

After 15 minutes of The Boy Who Trapped The Sun, we dived over to the first dedicated venue of the night (hurray!), Hootananny's, to catch Hey Enemy (***), who blew any romantic dreamings of lazing about on a summer evening in the country the hell away with some balls out riffing. Sinisterly stalking the stage, and then the floor and tables of the venue, the band blast out a frenetic set of raw punk that tips it's hat to 90s rockers The Jesus Lizard and Kyuss, and end their set in spectacular fashion, when in their epic closer, the didgeridoo wielding drummer manages to make a pint glass in the crowd spontaneously combust. awesome. After catching the tail-end of HE, it's upstairs for more rawk action with the super totally awesome United Fruit (*****). Probably the biggest surprise of the day, this unassuming four-piece crash through a massively impressive set of post-hardcore that, like the best of it's kind (At The Drive-In and the hugely underrated Welsh band Jarcrew spring to mind), manages to sound wild and unhinged yet tight and completely accessible. Definitely one to watch. 

Another 15 minutes is up and it's back over to the City Bar, where the eight members of We See Lights (****) are crammed into the smallest space i've ever seen any human being occupy before. The band however seem to revel in the cramped conditions and the proximity of the now-sizable crowd, who win the prize for the most enthusiastic crowd ever (which must be a good sign) and for the worst dancing ever (not so good but still highly amusing). After five tracks of excellent summery guitar-pop that sets us up perfectly for the weekend at Rockness, we're on the move again, by this point starting to get a little weary, and it's over to The Exchance (another pub really not equipped to host live music) to catch old friends Theatre Fall (***). Having recently undergone a major line-up change, and now sporting a female-fronted lineup, the band are finding their feet again as a live outfit, but a whole new set and a new edgier electro-driven sound, with synths and sequencers all over the place, shows a great deal of potential. 

With TF closing the day's showcases, it was over to The Ironworks for the official after show party, which, rather than featuring, as you might expect, DJs and a massive piss up, consisted of two live bands from, rather oddly, Scandanavia. We turned up in time to only catch the end of Tone's (**) set, they seemed to be trying to create lo-fi trip hop on a selection of old cassette machines and biscuit tin lids. It wasn't great. Casiokids (***) started off looking crazy and sounding horribly twee, however, just as we'd had about enough and left in disgust, the band suddenly launched into a Holy-Fuck-on-mad-Norwegian-8bit-infused-happy-pills dance fest. As the great Alan  Hanson is always quick to remind us, it is indeed a game of two halves, and this second half (which was more like 5/8s) was much more fun, musically interesting, engaging and just well...good. Kudos to them too for sticking to their guns and singing in their native tongue. Even if it does sound like mad bastard crazy babble. 

Due to the odd decision to stage the second day of Go North on the same day as the first night of Rockness (which it is affiliated with) and pit the bands against the heavyweight draw of The Flaming Lips, we are unable to review their sets. Because we weren't there. We will however guess and say that they were all amazing. Awesome. Five stars all round. Well done guys, great sets.

There is a review of Rockness to come, however our bodies are still reeling slightly from a weekend of extraordinary excess so that'll have to wait until tomorrow!

DW