Good morning folks, the sky is clearing up making room for the odd sunny spell and I am telling you all about Friday night now! Jape at The Dock, to fill in the ‘late-comers’, but most of you know that by now!
That night’s gig was very very good, I dare to say splendid if not glorious! Driving rhythms both acoustic from an excellent drummer and electronic from an array of synthesisers, samplers and drum machines were woven through washes of melody and melancholia realised through intricate electric guitar and bass playing. Wow, what a sentence! The set was upbeat and at times really funky. It veered into crunchy electronic territory with twisted baselines but also contained infectious electric guitar lines. Not surprisingly the best received tune of the night was ‘Floating’ reworked for the live context with samba style percussion. But that song from the foyers’ laptop gently hounded whoever hung out at The Dock in the last couple of weeks, so it found in earwigs’ manner its way into our brain! Richie Egan likened one of Jape’s new tracks to Pat Benatar’s 80’s hit ‘Love is a Battlefield’, which drew some laughter from an attentive and enthralled audience, but for me as an Oldie that twist seems rather cute! You can tell that a wide range of music influences members of Jape as their new material is littered with opaque and sometimes transparent references to rock, indie, dance, pop and world music styles. Some of the new material is slow and thoughtful, some full on funky but instantly memorable with some very catchy hooks and clever lyrics. It was all delivered with energy, great playing and no small amount of good humour. If their drummer doesn’t collapse some time in the future from the lack of an on stage supply of water they are surely heading for the big time! Sorry for the folks who missed out on that one!
Have a great week ahead,
Your Dock Blogger
The Dock 