Some say that the most imaginative music is evolving from the contemporary acoustic, indie / psychedelic folk scene, and so I felt compelled to go to the Fleece to see these three American ‘cult’ bands.  

There was a good crowd of all ages, who paid £12 + to see these bands, and most in the audience seemed to know the material being played.

The Woods, (also known as The Woods  Family Band),

 ‘The Woods’ kicked off the evening with a rather indifferent set of songs. The last quarter of each song veered off into a quasi psychedelic phrase. This was executed particularly by one member of the band who was kneeling on the floor working a vocal sequence through a microphone patched through a series of guitar pedals. It was all rather low tech with bits of prehistoric tape cassette machines littering the floor, all fed through guitar pedals and a small mixer unit.

This I sense is the essence of this type of  psychedelic folk music, keep the effects ‘home made’, using anything and everything,  pass it through loop stations, phase shifters etc  etc, but make sure you can recreate it on stage.

I don’t decry low tech, I’m a bit like that myself, plodding along with analogue junk where most musicians would wince, but it only has significance if it sounds OK,  or is original in some respect.  The point about this band member, was that he seemed somewhat detached, and a bit ‘unto himself’, creating away. The overall impact had some relationship  to the overall band sound but the audience seemed  more transfixed by the spectacle of someone manufacturing ‘original sound’ before their very eyes, albeit not particularly inspired.

The other feature of moderate interest was that all members sang through one of those little ‘egg shaped’ microphones,  that tend to be favoured  by harmonica players. The overall effect sounded rather scratchy and thin, reminiscent what you get from a megaphone. Deliberate, obviously, but why? And for the entire set?

The Cave Singers.

The Cave Singers, the 2^nd  band of the evening  played with a degree of commitment, and energy and I warmed to them much more. There was nothing particularly innovative about them other than it was a pared down 3 piece band with simply a drummer and a very good rhythm guitarist grinding out a rich full driving ‘bed of sound’ for the singer to surf on. I say simply a drummer, but in fact he was very good, creating bass drum and side drum patterns that meant one didn’t miss the absence of a bass guitar . The singer sang with power but the lyrics were somewhat ephemeral.

Background info, The Cave Singers is an American band from Seattle, Washington. Rising from the ashes of Pretty Girls Make Graves after its disbandment in 2007, former PGMG-member Derek Fudesco teamed up with Pete Quirk (of Hint Hint) and Marty Lund (of Cobra High) and began playing in the Seattle area.^[1] Soon after the band's conception, The Cave Singers signed with Matador Records on June 11, 2007.^[2] The band spent time recording in Vancouver with music engineer Colin Stewart, who quickly produced the band's first full-length LP. Before releasing The Cave Singers' debut album, Invitation Songs, the band released the limited edition pre-release 7" "Seeds Of Night" including the b side "After The First Baptism" on August 2, 2007.^[2] A month later, Invitation Songs was released on September 25, 2007 and met with critical acclaim. The second single from Invitation Songs, "Dancing On Our Graves", was released on February 25, 2008.

On 18th August, The Cave Singers released their second album 'Welcome Joy', featuring guest appearances from Amber and Ashley Webber from Lightning Dust  Matador Records gave away a free download of one of the new tracks, 'Beach House' to fans.

Espers.

This was the main act and many in the audience seemed to know them having attended  a very successful gig by them at the Cube in 2008, allegedly.

This is a big band, comprising of a cellist, two acoustic guitarists an electric guitarist, a bass player and drummer. The two female acoustic guitarists who sat to the centre and centre left of the stage, were disengaged and unsmiling,  and one felt that they would rather be anywhere else but performing to a devoted audience, in downtown Bristol.

The main singer who played electric guitar seemed to be the driving force and he, and the bass player and drummer and cellist kept the set alive. Whether or not the two female  acoustic guitarists were disillusioned by being ‘working musicians on the road’, I don’t know, but their disenchanted grimaces did little to engage me with their set or the bands overall personality. What I find difficult to understand is that these women were armed with £1,800, Martin guitars, didn’t have to lug around heavy amps / band gear  etc, as they were using ‘in house gear, had a sound engineer to monitor and tweak  their overall performance, had ongoing success with  a cult band, playing all over the world to an audience that ostensibly ‘appreciated them’, and in this case who had come out on a cold autumn evening for £12 a ticket?  What’s that all about?

Background info, Espers is a psych folk band from Philadelphia that is part of the emerging indie folk scene. They formed in 2002 as a trio of singer-songwriter Greg Weeks, Meg Baird and Brooke Sietinsons but later expanded to a sextet including Otto Hauser, Helena Espvall and Chris Smith. Their music is reminiscent of late-sixties British folk as well as many contemporary folk acts such as Six Organs of Admittance. Most of the band's members have also featured on recordings by a number of other folk artists such as Nick Castro and Vashti Bunyan and as a result have become an important part of the psych-folk revival.

They released their self-titled debut in 2004 on Locust Music and followed that with an album of cover songs, The Weed Tree, in 2005. This release featured the band's versions of songs by artists as diverse as Nico, The Durutti Column and Blue Öyster Cult. In 2006 the band released their third full-length album, II (presumably so called because it was their second album of original material), on Drag City Records. Their fourth album, III, was released on October 20, 2009.