From the misty, pine-covered hills of the Pacific Northwest hail the Bridge City Sinners, who span the continuum from prohibition era jazz to Appalachian death folk. This traditional string band lineup bends the meaning of the word genre, playing festivals from Punk Rock Bowling to Muddy Roots to Oregon’s Bluegrass String Summit. They started their journey by busking on sidewalks across the country and now this supergroup of musicians find themselves on the national tour circuit. The Sinners still hold true to the DIY mentality of releasing albums on their self-made record label, Flail Records. With talented musicianship and a punk as f***! live show, this is one band you don’t want to miss.
I'd never been to a gig in Room 2 before, so I didn't know what to expect, other than that I'd heard the massive pillars can obscure the stage from some positions. We arrived shortly before 7pm, when the doors were due to open, and the queue was already stretched along Nelson Mandela Place into Buchanan Street. The crowd was a mix of norms and weirdos, from a bearded, older gentleman in a Victorian suit to young ladies with tattoos over every inch of exposed flesh, bar their faces. No frisk at security, just bag checks, so we got in quickly and descended the stairs to get our tickets scanned. Industrial metal, like the kind played as background music in a nightclub scene prior to a fight, droned from the room ahead.
The venue is dark and dingy. The raised bar area sits perpendicular to the stage along one wall; the merch stall is behind the sound desk, opposite the stage. Punters disappear down side corridors to I never found out where (toilets?). I know this band encourages mosh pits, so I pick a spot on the floor level at the back, in front of the sound desk. I have a curtain behind me, so if I need to lift my phone, it won't be in anyone's way.
The preshow playlist is indescribable: one minute, they're playing David Hasselhoff "Looking For Freedom", the next Dangerdoom's "Vats of Urine". Then The Chicks, Alphaville, Queen... Bob finds their Sinners Show Playlist on Spotify. It's so huge, containing a bit of everything, that playing it on shuffle means no two gigs will ever sound the same.
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| Cheap Dirty Horse |
The support band, Cheap Dirty Horse, comes across like a school band that never quite broke up. Musically, they sit somewhere between The Pogues and Mumford and Sons. All four, except the drummer, take turns singing lead. The young electric guitarist is especially off-key with his shouty vocals. Somehow, though, with the rest supplying backing vocals, the frenetic songs work. The long-haired bassist has a good voice when he's not headbanging.
I can't say I ever want to see them again, but hats off to them for giving it a go.
By the time Bridge City Sinners take the stage, the room is packed tighter than a tin of sardines. I realise our position is a problem as we have nowhere to go when people push in front of us. Pressure comes from the sides too, as fans crowd in, trying to see around the five-foot-wide pillar blocking their view of the stage.
It takes a while for the sound engineer to mix the levels, so the singer's vocals are initially lost in the music. As such, they don't sound that great. Once that gets fixed and the band moves on to older, more familiar songs, the crowd comes alive. They form mosh rings, sing along, and start their own chants. They serenade the band with "Flower of Scotland", much to the band's delight and confusion.
The band's singer is nuts, pitching between the sweetness of cartoon character Betty Boop and the maniacal growl of The Exorcist's Linda Blair, often in the same song. She's like a walking tattoo, and thanks a local artist for her most recent one. The band aren't shy about turning their freak up, a fact reflected in their fanbase's appearance.
I'm not sure whether I enjoyed this gig in the end. The mosh pits and circles didn't bother me as we were out of their reach, but they did make the crush more uncomfortable. My feet were sore from standing in the same spot for so long, with not even an inch of wiggle room. Maybe in a different venue with more space, I'd give them another go.
Who am I kidding? An interesting experiment, but definitely a one-and-done.
