“It’s not like buying a pancake, this is going to last forever.”
This time last year, 100 of us snuggled inside the now-struggling venue of Brixton’s Windmill admiring the supergroup of Black Midi and Black Country, New Road exude Christmas cheer. For their comeback, 1,000 of us remained snuggled within our homely environments as the same supergroup came to their beloved venue’s rescue.
Replicating the excitable fibres entangled within their past performance into tonight’s livestream was never going to be an easy task. In sight of the very same venue which played host last time, the financial deprivation burgeoning such independent venues has brought about many inspiring campaigns, yet Black Midi, New Road played to what they knew best.
Arranging tonight’s livestream show to save the Windmill Brixton, we were re-introduced to the almighty group once again, soloing through the first hour of an unrehearsed, unfiltered free-form style of jazz tinged with Christmas melodies. Commenced by the sumptuous aura of ‘Little Drummer Boy’, the group invited more of a jump-in-and-see-how-you-fare type of improvisation from the 10-person entourage interspersed within the venue. As a stark reminder to last year’s performance, each leap of improvisation effortlessly careened any major key infiltrations imminently to minor key, culminating into a multitude of blaring crescendos antithetical to the usual ‘Christmas spirit’.
"Our delectable hoagie sandwich..."
The impressively interchangeable ensemble tonight: saxophone, guitars, bass guitars, drums, violin, singers and keys, incessantly waded through myriad time signatures, tempos and scales forever feeding the groove’s guiding impetus. Where the saxophone provided the warm, rich mustard cutting through our delectable hoagie sandwich, the double-drums succumbed to a stodgy bread filling in parts, requiring much more glutinous meat from the bass guitars. Overall, the ensemble enacted an enticing, exciting and unpredictable first-half set pushing both group's prowess dictated over their respective instruments.
And now onto the second half’s ‘Christmas’ covers. Initiated by the curt drum roll of Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born to Run’, the saxophone and violin’s parts leaped into a fortified existence, carrying much of the entourage before simmering to ‘Go To Sleep’s ethereal interlude, lingering in the air as a warm, enveloping blanket. Here, the supergroup seemingly enjoyed themselves and even embraced smiles - inspired by an upbeat cover of Cee Lo Green’s ‘Forget You’ which centre-staged the pre-violinist as a main vocalist. Beyond this, the expectedly unexpected mainstream cover of Coldplay’s anthemic ‘The Scientist’ garnered a feature from BCNR’s main vocalist, before transcending into tonight’s conclusion of Led Zeppelin's ‘Immigrant Song’ with a splurge of Christmas spirit.
Admittedly, not every cover performed tonight lived up to its valiant respectability, yet the second half of this evening’s set proved a welcomed respite after its preceding nomadic ventures. It would always prove nigh-on impossible to reach the exuberant heights of such a set as last year’s, however, seemingly 10 times more people tonight basked in the glorious reunification of this pair of promising bands. Beyond the group’s assertion that we’ll be hearing the “2 best albums of the century next year”, respectively from BM and BCNR, the true message displayed tonight was overwhelming: remember your local community and save the Windmill Brixton.
As Geordie Greep of Black Midi stated, the Windmill cannot afford to have an expiry date labelled onto it like a pancake, but should rather become an immortal fibre of a supportive and reciprocal community championing our arts culture.
7.5/10
To donate to the Windmill Brixton, please click here.
Featured photo is courtesy of Holly Whitaker, whose work can be found here.
Black Country, New Road's upcoming debut LP is out on February 5th via Ninja Tune, and can be pre-ordered here.
Black Midi's latest Christmas covers are out now and can be found here.
Comments