Like A Fish On A Hook With A Twitch

Last Friday (22nd), Mike and I ventured into Bristol to see Mozart Estate and Half Japanese co-headlining at Strange Brew in the city centre. It was a blast.

 

It was a real throwback to my twenties, when I would go to gigs just for the experience of live music without necessarily a clue or a care about what the artists were about or whether they were any good. I wasn't especially familiar with any of the acts performing on stage at Strange Brew. It was also the first time I'd been to the venue, so everything was fresh, new and without preconceptions on my part. 

 

I know about Lawrence, of course. Regardless of when you were born (I was a 70s kid), an interest in alternative/indie music will inevitably lead you to his legendary 1980s band, Felt. I've a few but not all of their albums and singles but, collection-wise, it's a case of diminishing returns for his subsequent bands: I've an album and a couple of singles by Denim (1990s), a handful of songs by Go-Kart Mozart (1999-2022) and absolutely nothing by Mozart Estate.

 

Likewise Half Japanese, although I am more familiar with Jad Fair and recently acquired the album he did with Teenage Fanclub, as part of my belated deep dive into the latter's catalogue. Half Japanese have been around even longer, self-releasing cassettes circa 1974/75 and indie label releases from 1980. As at last Thursday, I didn't have a single Half Japanese song in my collection and, if I had heard anything by them, I didn't know or remember it.

 

None of that compares to the support act, who Mike and I had never heard of before arriving at the gig. Sadly, due to the logistics of working in Gloucestershire, getting to Bristol, what turned out to be a very early running show and arriving at Strange Brew around 7.45pm, we only got to see the last one-and-a-half songs of Bruno & The Outrageous Methods Of Presentation's half-hour set. Despite the so-so name, they were fantastic in the brief burst that I saw.

A few words about Strange Brew, which boldly opened in September 2020. It's a former shop and everything's on ground level, stage included, bar on the right as you enter, tables and chairs around the side and a big space in front of the stage. It's about as intimate as you could wish but I could imagine that even a packed gig wouldn't feel overly claustrophobic. And I had to imagine, because sadly I don't think capacity for this show got above a couple of hundred, criminal given the quality of the music on offer.

As Mike and I approached Strange Brew, the blasts of music from within were both an indication that something special was happening but, in retrospect, an indication of why there was a 10.00pm curfew in place. Given the ground level placing of the stage, as we entered the venue, we couldn't see much of the band at first but it quickly became apparent that both musically and physically, Bruno & The Outrageous Methods of Presentation (BOMP) are not your typical band.

Frontperson Bruno Bof-Wilkinson is 17 years old. At a guess, BOMP's guitarist, bassist and drummer are at least three times that but the energy and synergy between the four in that brief 5 or 6 minutes was fantastic. The band were solid, steady, providing a foundation for Bruno's wired, full-throttle performance. Jumping off stage into the crowd (well, arguably a hop as it was the same level), at times all we could see was Bruno's hair (shaped into an Elvis Presley quiff) and/or guitar head as he bounced up and sank low. And then it was all over, finishing more or less bang on time.

When pulling together bits for this post, I came across this tweet about another BOMP gig in Bristol last year, which indicates the kind of next-level commitment Bruno gives to his art.

 

Bassist Delia Sparrow also posted the entire gig on YouTube. Watch out for the brave soul who tries to negotiate around Bruno to retrieve his pint from the mixing desk. Not the best band name ever, but I'd definitely part with cash to see Bruno & The Outrageous Methods Of Presentation again.

Half Japanese appeared on stage shortly after. My only visual memory of Jad Fair is that he looked a bit like Lou Barlow in the 1990s, tousled black hair and big, thick-rimmed round glasses. No more. 

 

As the photo (thanks, Original Smokin Jon) shows, the band are mostly all in their late 60s now. Guitarist Mick Hobbs may have spent the entire set seated though the songs themselves carried all the energy that was needed. Jad Fair's voice is arguably an acquired taste but it had lost none of it's quality and personality with the passage of time. 

Being completely unfamiliar with any of their songs, I can only say that the band played about 15 songs in just under an hour, including a mid-set acapella rendition by Jad of a Daniel Johnston song/poem. I can tell you that the set included the songs Firecracker Firecracker, Red Dress and Charmed Life because Jad introduced them as such. I can also tell you that it was a great set, which gave me that wonderful sensation of hearing songs for the very first time, without prejudice or judgement about 'favourites' or how the live performances compared with the studio versions. 

My abiding memory if of Jad's tiny guitar (ukelele?) which he twisted, turned and flipped over throughout the gig. The diminutive size of his guitar created the optical illusion of making the bassist's instrument seem ridiculously large by comparison. I'm not sure the photo quite captures that but it made me smile.

Here's a performance of Round And Round from a show a few days previously in France. 

And so to the Mozart Estate. Lawrence celebrated his 62nd birthday in August and celebration is probably the right word. There was a real sense of fun and mischief from the outset, with the show opener Lawrence Is Taking Over.

Again, it was a brisk set from a super-tight band, sixteen songs in just under an hour, finishing promptly at 9.54pm. A half-and-half mix of songs from the current Mozart Estate album and Go-Kart Mozart classics, the (should have been) hit rate was astonishing. A shame that there were relatively few people there to witness it.

"Come closer", Lawrence urged the audience at one point, "I can't see you!"

I'm not one given to impromptu and random acts of improvised and arrhythmic dancing but songs like I'm Gonna Wiggle are hard to resist and the aural treats just kept coming and coming. Until suddenly, Lawrence announced an encore ("We're not gonna leave the stage and come back again") and then that was it, all over. Brilliant, though.

Thanks to NUM for tweeting the photo of Lawrence below, setlist strapped to his wrist, and said setlist which opened up this post.

Here's an audience-filmed clip of I Wanna Murder You from about a third of the way through the set. The recording is a bit ropey, sound-wise, but you get the gist.

Needless to say, I bought the Mozart Estate and Half Japanese albums post-gig and am currently exploring the vast back catalogue of Bruno Bof-Wilkinson, all available on Bandcamp.

And Mike, Bruno was apparently singing about a stoic tree rather than a tree stump, but who's counting?!