They are leaving now, to the sound of beating wings

Friday 15 April – and we are down at Fibbers tonight for a bit of post-rock, ambient shoegazing. I love my shoes, the toes are so shiny! Four of us were out tonight, The Druid being accompanied by a work colleague, Richard. Now during the winter months it’s been pretty cold in Fibs so we normally turn up in jumpers and coats. Tonight of course it was quite warm and, in true Fibbers style, the air con wasn’t on, so we had to strip down to shirtsleeves. Ho hum, on with the music.

The first band onstage were Panic Procedure. Hailing from York the band formerly known as Conspiracy Of Many consist of; Hayley Jackson (vocals), Nick Broom (guitar), Ed Walker (guitar), Luke Symonds (bass), and Mike Watkins (drums), although I believe that Luke had a last minute substitute, so don’t quote me on this. They played reasonable rock, Nick Broom in particular stood out with superb guitar playing. Sadly, Hayley’s vocals came across as muddy and fairly monotonal. I’m not sure if this was due to the PA but it did detract from the rest of the band. She could have done with some backing vocals to add variety but the chaps seemed a bit shy of approaching a microphone.

Next in support came a band from Scarborough, The Tiny Eyes. These are: Karl Wei (guitar), Carl Linsdell (vocals and guitar), Mat Downes (bass) and Paul Mason (drums). Their high slung guitars immediate made my hackles rise as this is generally the modus operandi of scattergun strumming, post-punk, noiseniks, not my favourite cup of cocoa. But stay my fluttering heart, they weren’t as bad as I thought, in fact Carl’s voice was pretty awesome. To me they came across as a mix of The Libertines and Blur so it was interesting for me to note that they quoted these, among others, as their influences on FaceSpace. Certainly they their choppy guitar style was Libertine-like but their lyrics were Blur-clever in content and delivery. They produces songs in a variety of styles among which I enjoyed and mentally noted; The Mad Hatter, You’re The One and something about …By The End Of The Evening. I was pleasantly impressed.

And so to the headliners, imported all the way from Sweden for tonight’s delectation were Jeniferever. The band are: Kristofer Jönson (lead vocals, guitar, keyboards), Martin Sandström (guitars, backing vocals), Olle Bilius (guitar, bass, keyboards, backing vocals), and Fredrik Aspelin (drums, backing vocals), but there was another bass player as well for tonight’s show. With three albums under their belt, this tour was showcasing their most recent offering Silesia. There are obvious parallels in their music to fellow North men Sigur Rós, but Jeniferever are a little less tinkly and a touch more loud. The Druid likened them more to Engineers and I agree with him on that. I didn’t note any of the song titles, I was too busy enjoying myself to be honest. I did notice that the songs that were introduced as being from the current album were more accessible, more immediate, more ‘pop’ if that’s possible with this genre of music. Personally I enjoyed the other tracks, presumably from the older albums. I love the way that repetitive chord sequences are built upon in successive layers of drum ‘n’ bass, keyboards and guitars, into a rich tapestry of noise, the lyrics almost secondary as the voice adds another layer of texture to the overall sound. Absolutely fantastic, highly recommended and I’ve ordered an album to boot.

PS Panic Procedure have pointed out to me that it was Ed that couldn't make it and he was subbed by Tony Capstick. Thanks PP.