Folk music - it's a young man's world

This item is dedicated to absent friends who were confounded by geography.
Following on from our trip to Frome and the acoustic dungeon it was reassuring to see on the Bristol Academy’s website an endorsement from the NUS that “sound quality is of a high standard”. Good start. It also claims that “the balconies and different levels are perfect for band watching”. Not normally an issue but don’t knock it. So it was with a cheerful step that we bounced out of Zero Degrees (mango beer again?!) along to the venue and into another bar. The reality of the balconies and different levels comment is that if you have got there early and bagged a space up against the railings then great, otherwise you’re worse off than normal. Hey ho.
So to Seth. He seems to be accelerating at a rate of knots having first seen him just under two years ago in the back room of a pub and then through a variety of venues, including the aforesaid Frome dungeon (actually it was bad then too) and, as others have also said, one of the finest performances at Glastonbury this summer and now here he is filling up 1,600 seater venues. Not bad for a folkie. But then he has adapted with the change. On first sighting as a duo with his mate Benji then appearing as the Seth Lakeman trio (there were four of them) and now what presumably is the Seth Lakeman quartet (there were five of them). So you get Seth on fiddle and various (deliberately) four string guitars and a bit of banjo, his brother Sean on acoustic guitar (all sx strings present and accounted for), a double bass player with a sideline in banjo and not one but two percussionists, sharing a full drum kit and bashing away at various bashable things. We have come some way from the traditional folk evening – there were no fingers in ears at this gig! Note for the ladies, yes one of the percussionists was indeed the one that caused such heart flutters and murmurs that time at the Bierkeller. His tub thumping is pretty good too.
Musically Seth covered off early stuff, new songs and everything in between with a solo tour de force on Kitty Jay with just his singing and storming, energised fiddle – no wonder he looks like he’s knicked one of Popeye’s spinach-enhanced arms. Meanwhile there were regular infusions of vast amounts of dry ice – this was either to compensate for the smoking ban or to recreate his Dartmoor home. This was matched with a light show that added to the rock n roll feel. All of which went down a storm with a varied crowd of old gits and student yoof.
Support was Teddy Thompson – who seems to be doomed to this role. Still at least he’s support on good bills (last saw him supporting Lucinda Williams and he was ace). Here he seemed slightly more subdued and the audience, whilst pretty much all in attendance (no mean feat for a support act), took longer to appreciate what he was up to. This may have been aggravated by his recent quest to show people that country & western is good – which it is but some folks just don’t like to be told that. Hah! More fool them I say. He deserves to go big. But Seth is getting bigger ahead of him. Good luck to them both and thanks for a great night.