Music in the City

Hot on the heels of the Shirley Fringe, this weekend is Music in the City. This year, almost everything was on the Saturday, with only a DJ and some classical music on the Sunday, but there seemed a lot more on the Saturday.

We started with brunch at Thrive, then I went to 94 High Street—the designated ‘rock vault’—to catch Charmtype (Youtube), while my partner went to the medieval merchant’s house for a mix of protest songs, folk, and sea shanties.

After this, I went to the bandstand in Palmerston Park, which had been named the Andrew Cummings Stage. (I have no idea who he was.)

First up there, I caught Exhilaro, who opened with a cover of Metallica’s ‘Creeping Death’, then played a bunch of their own songs, including I think ‘Chains’, before finishing with another cover (Sepultura’s ‘Territory’). I guess we were lucky to get these old school covers, because a Youtube recording began and ended with KoRn and Limp Bizkit instead. Anyway, not really the kind of thing I listen to much these days, but they were pretty good, especially given that they seemed fairly young. (They were also on a ‘teenage bands’ bill at Planet Sounds later in the afternoon.)

Next Hail, who are a symphonic metal band, in the style of Nightwish. Again, maybe not exactly my cup of tea, but I thought they were quite good. After that, I took a quick break to nip to the loo/shops, so I missed most of the Andrew Cummings Tribute (which seemed to be performed by a mix of individuals from various acts), though I did return in time to see a male-female duet of ‘Love You to Death’ featuring the singer from Hail. The last of the acts that I caught at the bandstand were Shiversa (Youtube).

After that, I headed to HMV for Dandelion Chain, a post-punk/goth outfit who probably would have been better suited to one of the underground vaults (or a crypt…) rather than performing in daylight. Youtube clip here, though it doesn’t capture the frontman’s more energetic dancing.

Finally, for me, another set from Beardos and Weirdos. Unfortunately, it was basically a truncated version of the Fringe set that I’d seen twice last Saturday (though we did get the uncensored version of ‘You Oughta Know’). They left a few songs out, presumably for time reasons, though it turned out that they had time to add ‘Gone Away’ and ‘Weak’ at the end (but we still missed ‘Plush’ and ‘Today’).