So… working back on a Simple Things weekend that already seems a very long time ago, (and which included noteworthy sets by Bug Club, Warmduscher and local band Foot Foot, all of which were deserving of a few lines at the very least…), we end up back at the beginning…
Gruff Rhys, Strange Brew
Gruff Rhys is probably the artist I’ve seen most over the years, probably six or seven times one way or another – soggy festivals, dimly lit stages, as part of SFA – but I can honestly say I’ve never been disappointed, on the contrary I do remember being re-won over at Sea Change one year, having felt a bit lukewarm at the prospect of another set (until he ambled onstage, I should say).
On each occasion, I’ve ended up buying the latest offering, some of which have fallen by the wayside over the following years. This time, however, he has a genuinely good set of songs behind him in the shape of Sadness Sets Me Free, an album full of tracks that are both new and familiar at the same time.
The evening opened with a very nice set from yet another young Welsh language band, Pys Melyn, who as Coleser pointed out couldn’t be from anywhere else but the Principality – shaggy, disarming, polite. I enjoyed their set enormously as it jangled along in charmingly haphazard fashion and needed little persuasion to buy their CD and a lovely t-shirt with a Warhol-y cob of sweetcorn across the chest. The singer, Ceri Humphrys was ridiculously pleased that I was buying and patiently explained to me that “pys melyn” means “yellow peas” – sweetcorn. I was ridiculously pleased in turn to hear this little nugget and I felt we both went away satisfied.
There’s a slightly old video of a session they did for S4C that’s well worth a watch:
I doubt if “business-like” is a phrase that has been applied to Gruff Rhys too often, but I definitely detected a more direct approach to the start of the set at least. Maybe it’s the result of having a really strong record to promote but he seemed keen to get on with it – there was less rambling charm than previous times (the “Applaud!!” signs only appeared fairly late in the set) and more of a desire to plough on.
True, there was a lengthy section in the middle of “Negative Vibes” where the drummer (a busy, no nonsense presence behind the kit) brought out a shredder and gleefully disposed of anxiety notes audience members had posted in a box by the merch stall, before the song continued. That aside, a business-like affair.
To be honest it was all pretty well-balanced and provided an excellent evening’s entertainment, particular highlights for me were “I tendered my resignation” (one of those new but old favourites, with its particularly poignant sense of powerlessness and formality) and a boisterous version of “Pang!” with (PP-sanctioned) audience participation.
There’s a really nice video filmed in Glasgow earlier in the week which captures how the Strange Brew evening went:
All in all it was a pretty much just what the doctor ordered there was even a guest appearance from Stephen “Sweet Baboo” Black towards the end of the set (of course there was!) and it pretty much ticked all of the boxes as another version of my afore-mentioned Happy Place: beer, music, merch and Gruff.
I’m a simple man, it’ll keep me going until the next time.
Partly Porpoise 