Music > Live Reviews
Sonic Youths Turn Two @ NAC
11/08/16
Happy Birthday Sonic Youths! The showcase for young musicians just turned two, and I was fortunate enough to celebrate with them. Over the past few years, local legend Annie Catwoman has curated gigs with musicians aged 14-19, with the public paying what they can at the door.
As I discovered at the Wednesday night birthday gig, there is no catch. Post-work fatigue drifted as I got swept up in the talent of Norwich’s young music scene. First on the bill was Mullally, an assured soul singer with a voice to match (and potentially beat) Sam Smith’s. Before Wednesday, I’d never heard of him, and felt somewhat passé when he mentioned that his single Troubled Love had racked up 1.4 million Spotify streams. No wonder, his neo-soul voice flowed over the accompanying acoustic guitar like a natural top 40 hit. Tales of hobnobbing with Marina and the Diamonds complemented affable, vulnerable songwriting – substance bolstered swagger.
After Mullally’s set, Annie and her megaphone herded us into the Café Bar for 16 year old Sadie Nencini. Perched on her stool, guitar clutched close, Nencini evoked a fledgling Laura Marling. There were further surface similarities, i.e. the one-woman indie folk set up, painfully honest lyricism (“do I still hate myself?”). However, Nencini soon shook herself free from a comparison she probably hears all the time. Lyrics aside, her demure, delicate voice and subdued guitar work asserted that we were eavesdropping on something personal, something unique. Given that this was Nencini’s second gig, ever, she was incredibly promising.
It was back to the main stage for Abigail Blake, a 21 year old Sonic Youths alumni. She played the first ever showcase in August 2014, and her Wednesday performance was a delightful example of the programme’s success. Blake played what she termed “twinklestep” – the product of a harp, looping and electronic samples. Watching Blake traverse the stage, pressing pedals, recording harp strains and working her Mac was as fascinating as the music itself. Blake has a strong, glassy voice to match her instrumentals – certainly a master of all trades.
Jaztec were next, a duo comprising of Dominic Trevor and Alex Guy. The act is fairly new, but you couldn’t tell. With Trevor on sax and Guy on keyboard/laptops, Jaztec mirrored the style and creativity of BadBadNotGood. Instumental hip-hop, electronica, jazz and funk all came into the mix. Far from sounding like kids experimenting with Cubase in their room, Jaztec’s performance was an imaginative, genre-ditching treat. If we’re picking favourites, Jaztec were mine.
Post-punk band Midnight Zoo closed the celebrations. I’m smug in advance – after Wednesday I can say I saw this band before they made it big. The trio are bursting with unexpected energy, and also an element of restraint needed to maintain their sparse, eerie sound. The frontman’s Curtis-like baritone choked the room, whilst frenetic drumming and impassioned bass-playing strung the band tightly together.
Let’s hope Sonic Youths continues for two more years to come. And then two years after that, and so on. These acts were just five of Norwich’s vast, young talent pool. Annie Catwoman and Sonic Youths help to give them a platform. I enjoyed my first Sonic Youths gig – it definitely won’t be my last.