{"id":6521,"date":"2010-04-02T15:58:31","date_gmt":"2010-04-02T15:58:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thejoycollective.co.uk\/blog\/?p=6521"},"modified":"2014-09-05T18:17:32","modified_gmt":"2014-09-05T18:17:32","slug":"benni-hemm-hemm-yucatan-among-brothers-arctic-circle-buffalo-bar-cardiff-28-3-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/review\/benni-hemm-hemm-yucatan-among-brothers-arctic-circle-buffalo-bar-cardiff-28-3-10\/","title":{"rendered":"Benni Hemm Hemm \/ Yucatan \/ Among Brothers \/ Arctic Circle : Buffalo Bar, Cardiff : 28.3.10"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Vivers<\/strong>: Somewhere, there’s always a soundman going crazy. Buffalo’s, at least tonight, is called Ed, and he nods silently when offered a drink. There’s a Haiti fundraisers-worth of musicians playing tonight and every one of them must die. Sorry, soundcheck. “I just don’t like people turning up unannounced with two clarinets.” We’ve all been there Ed. It’s okay. When they do come on, Arctic Circle <\/strong>are pretty fantastic: a lovely, heartwarming, homemade indie racket full of shambolic guitars, vocals that just hang there, intermittent trombone parps, much instrument changeovers and, finally, double woodwind action. They also have the added stamp of quality of featuring Super George of Fringes, Earthfall, Balky Mule and all other good Bristol bands. A happier Ed will later claim “I’m the Aspies Columbo!” but that’s a different story.<\/p>\n

Keef<\/strong>: Arriving customarily late yet still, it turns out, 45 minutes or so before soundcheck finally finishes is an odd sensation.\u00a0 Plenty of time to observe the wry resignation of a soundman who’s patiently shuffled 16 or so musicians on and off-stage already daring to ask the opening band how many they number only to be told “seven, and the drummer’s left-handed”.\u00a0 Priceless.<\/p>\n

Time enough also to mentally establish exactly who is and isn’t in a band.\u00a0 Half a dozen of the younger, thinner attendees take the stage around 9.45 in classic post-rock formation.\u00a0 Female violinist, natch.\u00a0 Influences (Explosions In The Sky, M83) emblazoned across chests.\u00a0 So far, so predictable?\u00a0 Maybe, but Among Brothers<\/strong> possess a little of the power to surprise, even if it’s not wholly realised at this stage.\u00a0 The skittering laptop flurries underpinning the songs may not be revolutionary but rather than seem bolted on or perfunctory, as is often the tendency, they’re knotted throughout, integral to the end result.\u00a0 Likewise, the vocals are pointedly given more emphasis, reminding you why you heard flashes of the yearning qualities of Twilight Sad or Efterklang in the recordings.\u00a0 They’re a shade overblown for my liking, if anything, but should temper that with time.<\/p>\n

Vivers<\/strong>: While Yucatan<\/strong> were surfing the national kudos that greeted their 2007 debut ‘Un Cyfle’ I could never find a way into its cold, glacial charms. Their set tonight is a much warmer experience, an example of small victories made through high volume, upped tempos and a, er, buxom string section. Songs like ‘Y Gwacter’ still maintain the mumbled vocals and rumbling, building guitars of so much moody, sweeping post rock but the violins take swipes at hard hearts and gruff arses get metaphorically kicked by amped up men in woollen hats. Swish, mostly.<\/p>\n

Keef<\/strong>: Plus, let’s not forget that the bassist out of Yucatan praised the handsome DJs for playing Datblygu.\u00a0 Chap.\u00a0 Now, if there’s one thing you’d expect to be able to rely on tonight, it’d be Benni Hemm Hemm <\/strong>sending us into the night with one last set of sweeping, big-hearted pop.\u00a0 That, and a really nice jumper or two.\u00a0 Yet here’s our man, taking the stage alone in smart black suit, red tie and furrowed brow to carefully pick out an acoustic ditty in Icelandic.\u00a0 Contrary bugger must have read my confident\u00a0assertion that it’d be an upbeat set in\u00a0the JC preview.\u00a0 The opener sets the tone for the set, the considered, spare songs given big daubs of colour by the doleful accompaniment of a two-man horn section but otherwise left to slowly unravel before winding back around your heart.<\/p>\n

It’s a testament to his oddball charm that a good hour of acoustic folk-pop, largely in a foreign tongue and with midnight approaching on a Sunday, doesn’t lose the attention of a decent crowd.\u00a0 With gently self-deprecating humour and a throwback pop sensibility reminiscent of Jens Lekman, he offers a sweet encore of first album standout “I Can Love You In A Wheelchair, Baby” and with a shy bow shuffles off to be greeted by a handful of smitten punters.\u00a0 Job done, and no soundmen (or musicians) harmed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vivers: Somewhere, there’s always a soundman going crazy. Buffalo’s, at least tonight, is called Ed, and he nods silently when offered a drink. There’s a Haiti fundraisers-worth of musicians playing tonight and every one of them must die. Sorry, soundcheck. “I just don’t like people turning up unannounced with two clarinets.” We’ve all been there […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[459],"tags":[1141,474,1139,517,1154,1161,1155,1095,1162,1140],"class_list":["post-6521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-review","tag-among-brothers","tag-arctic-circle","tag-benni-hemm-hemm","tag-buffalo-bar","tag-clarinet-rage","tag-dirty-old-man","tag-iceland","tag-joy-collective","tag-the-ed","tag-yucatan"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6521\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}