Acoustic Ladyland at Vortex

Acoustic Ladyland at Vortex

21 July, 2008
by: Jimmy

For reasons too boring to elaborate I was almost paralytically drunk by the time Acoustic Ladyland began their set at The Vortex. As a result most of what I remember is jumping up, down, and quite frequently sideways, thinking – "Wow! This is the shit! This is THE SHIT!" which undoubtedly contrasts favourably with the last time I jumped around this much, when I was out of (or maybe just below) my mind, at a Girls Aloud concert (I was courting), suffering the recurrent thought, "Ow! Ow-ow-ow-ow! This is shit! This is hellishly shit!” and of being about one Jameson away from trying to saw off my ears with my car keys. And straightaway I apologise for mentioning that dross here. They might be nominally in the same industry but they're about as equivalent to Acoustic Ladyland, as a toaster is to the Hubble telescope. Because last night the 'jazz-rock/neo-punk/sax-metal/post-beatnik/Hendrix-meets-Coltrane/ ultimately unclassifiable/unputdownable' quartet were typically awesome and Hey! Just remembering them now is vacuum-packing my Vesuvian hang-over.

Without guest vocalists on this occasion, Wareham's sax – part singing dentist's drill, part jiving refrigerator truck, part abandoned screaming orphan bonobo – played the epergne on the table top of Rochford's master-class drumming: solid as oak, rococo as the Ottobeuren Basilica. Throw in Ruth Goller's steak-knife bass and Cawley's keyboard varnish and we were being invited to admire a musical tableau fit for the Last Supper. Acoustic Ladyland were furious, loud and devastatingly original. A carpe diem cacophony fit for a king. I haven’t enjoyed a gig as much since seeing Gogol Bordello six months ago.

If you're an Indie kid who wants to know all about jazz but have been too scared to ask; here is the place to start. Their next gig will be April at a hush-hush venue they hope to announce on their myspazz soon.

Click here to see all London Jazz
Click here to see all London Live Music
Click here for things to do in Stoke Newington

Jimmy