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Seth Lakeman/Winter Mountain

Venue: Old Fire Station
Town: Bournemouth
Date: March 20th
Website: http://www.sethlakeman.co.uk

This was my first visit to The Old Fire Station in a little while. It may be because of the nature of the venue and maybe it's history, but compared to a number of the local venues, it has a harder, almost industrial feel, but most importantly it's got good sound.

Similarly it's been a while since I've seen Seth outside of a festival setting, in a smaller more intimate venue. It was a very welcome return not only to the area, but also to that sense of being up close to the artists and getting that feeling of a real connection.

There was quite West Country connection to the evening as opening duo Mountain Winterside were just under fifty percent Cornish by volume. The band have recently released a mini album/EP, at six tracks long it's your pick, and if their live performance of the songs is anything to go by, well worth tracking down.

Their sound predominantly draws on the vocal harmonies of the two protagonist, it works well and has an almost Simon & Garfunkle with attitude feel. What really intrigued me though was an anecdote during the set. "You can tell how well you're doing during a set by how fast people are texting." That shows the generation gap cause I'd have thought anyone texting during your songs shows you're not getting to them.

It was time for the main event. Seth has a new album about to launch, though naturally you can get the advance copies at the gig, and seems to be keen to get back to his more stripped sound. Consequently he's only got brother Sean, Ben Nichols, who looked crap throughout and has apparently been suffering from flu and Cormac Byrne with him on this outing.

At times the interplay between Seth and Sam was almost gladiatorial, there was a delightful sense of aggression to the gig. You wouldn't have been surprised to see him to Cormac and shout "Upon my signal unleash hell." Cormac is one of the country's finest percussionists, he's added a nice shiny bucket to his set up that I'm sure Ben looked at with a combination of desperation and trepidation.

Seth included songs from all of the albums in his set, with songs from the new album providing a number of the standout points, but it has to be said his solo performance of trademark tune "Kittyjay" was the absolute jewel in the crown.

Seth and co and gone on at 8:30 as there was apparently a 10pm curfew on the night. The audience certainly couldn't complain about the show they got, it was definitely a good night, but it still felt wrong having to leave a venue so early, great musical craftsmanship though and with Seth you would expect nothing less.

Words & Pics Neil King