If you looked at the wave of post punk and indie bands filling the Brighton gig guide, then any suggestion that ‘quiet is the new loud’ (thanks Kings Of Convenience) might seem way off message. But settling down for the latest Sofar session, with other expectant punters in a sold-out room at Brighton Toy Museum could easily change your mind.
To fill you in Sofar sessions as a thing began in 2009 when Rafe Offer, disillusioned by noisy gigs and chattering audiences, invited a bunch of people to his mate’s flat to watch some live informal, stripped back music. From that first tiny ‘event’, the Sofar idea was planted and has flourished rampantly ever since, operating in over 400 cities worldwide from Berlin to Brisbane, Boston to Brighton, with the original principles of the events clinging on as part of the Sofar Sounds USP.
Over to Jed Wright, promoter and part of Brighton’s Sofar team to fill in:
The one rule was that everyone has to be quiet when the acts were on and just listen …that is the essence of what they are now – doing gigs in places where they are not like a venue basically, so now we do art galleries, churches maybe, still some flats here and there and we’ ll convert the space a little for a gig, so everyone’s usually sat on the floor and just listening to the artist.
So the emphasis is on a campfire show but somewhere cosy and with quirky charm, plus there’s more. The venue doesn’t get revealed to ticket holders until 36 hours before the gig and, to add to the excitement, you don’t know the artists playing until doors open. As the compact room in the Fourth Arch of the venue’s toy warren fills up tonight, it’s obvious that plenty of people regularly put their trust in Sofar to get it right.
First up is the gliding neo-soul/smooth jazz of vocalist Amy Palmer. Backed by the nimble, warm toned guitar of Frank Thompson it’s a luscious and compelling start to the night, a set of honest relationship songs which soar and sway through the Museum’s tunnelled space. ‘The Problem Is You’ sees the duo relaxing into a hovering, Sade-like ballad, merging sadness and relief in this sharp falling out song. A new tune ‘Trip’ blends sleek funky undercurrents with Palmer’s fluent phrasing while an older song ‘I’m Yours’ shows the singer’s confident range and clarity (those shimmering high notes are knock-out). There’s a real poise and smouldering energy to the pair’s set tonight which rolls to a close with some brisk rhymes and sultry R&B grooves. Hearing these songs pared back without any produced trappings somehow takes you to the heart of messages they set out to send.
Sofar promoter Jed had described the principles which shape any gigs that go under the banner as an effort “to make all the acts a little bit different – different genres but which work well together”. Next up violinist, singer and climate activist Dan Hodd captures what this means.
You might have come across Dan and his endeavours on social media. His ‘Busk the Globe’ self – challenge, has seen him attempting to travel by bike, boat and rail through 100 countries in a 10 year window. With the aim of sharing the power of music, connection and alternative living with everyone he meets, his travels began in 2016. Then in 2022 a near catastrophe. While in the Middle East he was hit by a bus and seriously injured with one of his legs requiring amputation below the knee. This year has thankfully seen Dan Hood’s quest continue with a gentle return to travelling and playing music.
It’s this story which threads through his Sofar set tonight, both in his conversation with the punters and music choices. It begins atmospherically, a violin calling from the distant corridors, people looking around and joining in the cat and mouse. Soon, though, he’s walking through the huddle, playing a soaring concerto (sorry I’m no expert) which swoons with a Balkan twist. It’s a poignant pin drop moment in the evening.
Once seated upfront with his violin case open busker-style and folding bike for company, Hodd then takes us through an eclectic, genre jumping set. There’s: a pulsating, Swarbrick-toned ‘She Moved Through The Fair’, (possibly) Mahler’s ‘Ich bin der Welt adhanden gekommen’ delivered intensely by Hodd’s expressive baritone; and a stirring version of the Disney/ Michael Boulton classic ‘Go The Distance’ which avoids the schmaltz detector. The spot ends poignantly with a touching, simple strum through Peter Green’s ‘Man Of The World’, lovingly sung with grace and balance. His closing words to us are “35 countries left” and you know that will happen.
After a brief stretch and mingle around the Dinky cars and Hornby trains, it’s back for the final act, Brighton psych-folk troubadour LLSN (Ell Elson). There’s a hint of outsider art and DIY honesty about LLSN, who we’re told in the intro played his last Sofar set with the low hum of a broken TV for added atmospherics. Tonight he’s forgotten his tele but a patched up foot pedal and an old harmonica mic help shape the lo-fi-ness embedded in the LLSN sound.
He’s an intriguing performer stoically announcing he’s playing songs from an upcoming album, then admitting it’s music that his “bedroom walls have heard for a long time”. First up is a yowling, rootsy blues stomp of Waitsian intent, LLSN’s clear indie voice rising over the eerie twang. The lyrics bristle with insights and imagery, “Call me Cohen, I’ll call you Suzanne” and “A straw man fights fire, what chance does he have?” jumping out as soon as he sings them.
In the tunes that follow LLSN leads us through his surreal blend of imagined and actual, soft voiced songs and quirky pop, with a leftfield swirl of resonance and reverb whispering around the edges. ‘Bates Motel’, a number he introduces as about “a hotel you check into but never get out of…it’s not Hotel California”, shivers and chills impressively as it unravels. It’s a peak moment in the set. ‘Subterranean’ also leaves a mark, his rippling guitar patterns and more fragile vocal reaching inside a lonely time. Then to “roll the dice” and say goodbye LLSN croons out an understated ‘Christmas Song’ with “chestnuts roasting on an open fire” intact, while sneakily making the old trad schmoozer sound just a little unsettling.
It’s a fine end to an evening that has cumulatively, over all three acts, buoyed up everyone in the room without any histrionics or flashiness. Sofar does have its critics, some say it’s become too safe, too brand conscious and some ‘long term’ session goers at tonight’s show talk nostalgically about the old days where the hat got passed around to pay the artists and there were no PAs. But Jed and the team seem intent in keeping the Brighton ‘branch’ a bit more independent and spontaneous, using musicians from the city plus collaborating more closely with other local promoters and labels outside the Sofar umbrella. In these days when home scenes are under attack from all angles, surely such working together can only be seen as a positive.
Brighton Toy and Model Museum, Thursday 5th December 2024
Words by John Parry
Photos by Henry Warren
