feeling listless

Music Scoop at The Pilgrim, last night.
I’ve always had mixed feelings about pub bands. For a few years I played roadie to one in the Liverpool area (and sometimes Manchester), exercising my right to be a fan singing along to their own material. But somewhere along the line I fell out of love. Whether it was boredom with listening to ‘Foxy Lady’ for the hundredth time or the fact the band schismed due to personality clashes (it was all very ‘Almost Famous’ – the guitarist disappeared off the America to get married). So when I found myself in The Pilgrim last night watching the two piece acoustic ‘Scoop’ I really wasn’t looking forward to it. Which is a shame, because they were really, really good.

Not actually being a musician, I don’t like to review technique, not knowing anything at all about playing a guitar. From what I know it’s about how the musician makes you feel. If the emotion is there you’re in the right place. I smiled all the way through what I saw of the set. Perhaps the most endearing aspect of Scoop is that they don’t take themselves too seriously. At one point in the centre of an Oasis track, the lead guitarist, for whatever reason, sang the guitar solo; at another time he was blowing into what looked into a breath assisted Casio organ. The other plus was that this was a set of variety and eclecticism. Although Oasis and Nirvana appeared, we found not so well known album tracks; both Joan Osbourne and Sheryl Crow put in appearances; and we were introduced to the work of Scandinavian band Babelfish (“small, yellow and leech-like, and probably the oddest thing in the Universe….”) They were crowd pleasing as well as personal. Kind of like the best weblogs I suppose.

I'll keep you posted on their next gig so that you can sample them for yourselves...