As is expected alongside any event involving the word ‘festival’, Sunday was cold and rainy. Luckily, Dot to Dot is an inside festival, taking place across the various venues in Bristol, Nottingham and Manchester. However, the ‘dot to dot’ part meant running across the city between acts, to arrive at the next club shivering and dripping rainwater from your fringe. Despite this, however, Dot to Dot made for a good day out, especially as I would pay 20 quid to see some of the acts individually.
Upon arriving I caught the end of Barnum Meserve, an alternative rock band hailing from Nottingham. While I feel some irrational desire to love every local band going, this one was largely unmemorable: the fact that I had to YouTube them to remember what they sounded like demonstrates the impression they made. Over at Jongleurs comedy club, Kagoule (also from Nottingham) set a more positive tone for the day with their 90s-influenced shoegaze. As a very, very amateur (crap) bass player myself, I enjoyed watchingfemale bassist/vocalist Lucy who to the untrained eye seemed very chilled, and inspired me to pick up my own bass which is slowly gathering dust. Luckily, being young and local Kagoule are regulars on the Nottingham gig scene, so I look forwards to seeing them play again soon.
The part of Hot Japanese Girl’s set that I was fortunate enough to witness consisted of four not-exactly-young guys (thetype you can imagine sitting on the sofa playing games and eating Chinese) making a lot of noise. Not that I’m adverse to a lot of noise; just this wasn’t good noise. After ten minutes of this delight, I retreated to the familiar comfort of Rock City main hall, where Lucy Rose was playing. Female vocalist on Bombay Bicycle Club’s acoustic album Flaws, Lucy is now a folk-pop artist in her own right. The room was full and the crowd was contentedly singing along to singles Middle of the Bed and Scar, highlighting the progression Lucy has made since I last saw her at City. However, she remained endearingly down-to-earth, interacting with the crowd throughout.
Down in the basement, 19 year old Lewis Watson from Oxford began a promising set; your typical singer-songwriter/uke combination. In retrospect I think I may have been swayed by his relative attractiveness rather than distinctive talent, as by the time I left the room twenty minutes later his vocal metamorphosis into Ed Sheeran was complete, signified by my intense cringing at the growing congregation of swooning 14year olds and lyrical originality of ‘and I’d climb a thousand mountains just to meet you at the summit’. I turned and fled.
And just in time to see experimental beatbox artist aptly named The PETEBOX! After the dulcet tones of Lewis Watson it was an immense relief to be watching a man who looked like he was giving his microphone a blowjob for much of his performance. To be fair, his use of equipment to create live tracks, both his own and covers, was pretty impressive and certainly added novelty and entertainment to the day. His concluding rendition of Pixies’ ‘Where Is My Mind?’ created a halcyon atmosphere in the main hall with everyone singing and swaying nostalgically, a little unsure of whether what they had just witnessed was for real.
Image: Stephanie Webb
Hi future husband!
This is the point at which I turn into arepulsive fangirl over my favourite act of the festival (no, not Lewis Watson)– Jake Bugg! Being eighteen, from Nottingham and basically quite attractive I’ve been following him (in the metaphorical sense, obviously) for quite some time now. After his most recent single ‘Lightning Bolt’ was Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe’s Track of the Week, Jake has become more well-known in the mainstream market and has performed other tracks ‘Trouble Town’ and ‘Country Song’ on Jools Holland. His country-style vocals seemed just as prominent live as on record, and new track ‘Saffron’ was my personal favourite. The calm confidence on stage shows the effect that the past few months, supporting Michael Kiwanuka in Europe and appearing on television, has had on this Nottingham lad, and I will be interested to see how he develops further in the run-up to his album release in the autumn.
Back at Jongleurs, sister act 2:54 played a dreamy, ethereal set (at least, after the microphones were sorted out) involving a lot of red lipstick and hair-flicking which went down well with the crowd. They were followed by Frank Carter’s new band Pure Love, who, after the hardcore punk reputation of Gallows, seemed fairly accessible but still retaining plenty of spirit. Frank Carter spent the whole set in the middle ofthe crowd, shouting ‘you can’t fucking contain me!’ at the security guards suggesting he return to the stage. Considering I hadn’t actually bothered to listen to any of Pure Love’s material, their set was one of the most memorable and shows a promising start for the band.
Near the top of the Dot to Dot bill were Nottingham five-piece Dog is Dead, a band whose music has a similar effect on me to that of Bombay Bicycle Club (it leaves me grinning like an idiot). Despite the fact that the band are yet to release a full studio album, enough of the single and EP tracks were known by the crowd to make for a dynamic 45minutes, including curly-haired Trev playing the saxophone and the enthusiastic jumping to tracks like ‘Glockenspiel Song’, ‘River Jordan’ and ‘Young’. Meanwhile at Jongleurs, the energy was equally present as Wavves performed weed-fuelled songs to a crowd soaking up the Californian sunshine vibes filling the room.
By the time of headline act Pulled Apart By Horses my legs and back were aching like nothing else on earth, so I watched from a safer position off the left-hand side rather than indulging in the madness in the centre of the room. However, this did give me ample opportunity to watch a man in his 50s jumping up and down, shouting lyrics and raising his hands in ‘rock on’ gestures at the stage while his remarkably patient wife watched from the sidelines with a pained look on her face. I missed the second half of the set owing to my keenness to see Summer Camp at Rescue Rooms. After a good ten minutes fighting through the outside smoking area where drunken people were playing percussion instruments and dancing under a gazebo, I finally got in to discover that the band had pulled out, and, too tired and deflated to stay for Friends (who were given a disappointing live write-up in NME a few weeks ago), had to promptly fight my way back through to the haven of the freezing rain outside.
Dot to Dot 2012 provided a decent varietyof acts and showcased the local talent and venues, reinforcing my ultimate belief in the Nottingham music scene (hey, at least I’m not from Oxford, eh!).The fact that a range of well-established acts like The Drums and Pulled Apart By Horses were playing alongside smaller acts highlights the versatility of this indoor festival with a very competitive price. This in combination with the cities involved is important for demonstrating that there are possibilities outside of London for events like these, and that smaller, more experimental acts hold great prominence in influencing the wider UK music scene, keeping it as varied and fresh as it currently seems.
KLH
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