Tonight, I’ve ventured out into the cold Brixton night to enoy an evening of folk-ish Americana and whispery Scandinavian lo-fi pop. I’m already a Tom Brosseau fan, having had the pleasure of seeing him in a beautiful Theatre in Brighton at last year’s Great Escape Festival. The Windmill is a much smaller, ‘sticky floor’ venue where the atmosphere is a friendly one and I am intrigued to hear what the support will sound like.
Taxi Taxi! (ahem) hail from Stockholm, Sweden and are comprised of teenage identical twin sisters Miriam Erikkson Berhan and Johanna Erikkson Berhan. Their onstage demeanour is a quiet and a little shy, but they play confidently and command attention from those of us who arrive early enough to hear them.
Johanna gently plucks her guitar and sings while her sister Miriam plays accordion and also sings. Johanna’s voice is soft and reminiscent of The Sundays’ Harriet Wheeler. Together they make beautiful sounds, and their vocals complement each others, although Miriam’s voice is the stronger, with her inflections and delivery recalling Björk. They modestly plug their debut album, ‘Still standing at your back door’ which has recently been released on Fierce Panda, from which much of this set comes. They also do a rather lovely rendition of Daniel Johnston’s ‘True Love Will Find You In The End’.
Next up is Icelander, Lay Low aka Lovísa Elísabet Sigrúnardóttir. Her music is a combination of stripped back, melancholy tales and bluesy love-lorn observationalism. She is joined by a pork-pie hat wearing guitarist/banjo player who looks at little like a lost member of The Specials. As with Taxi Taxi! before her; her stage-presence is held in the delivery of her songs rather than in any in-between song tales. However, as she points out “I was enjoying playing so much I forgot to say anything to you, but I guess I came to play songs not to talk” True enough! Her unassuming moniker entirely befits her coyness, but that’s not to say she isn’t having a good time in retelling her tales of heartbreak. She spends most of her songs tapping her feet and smiling. Lay Low might do well to take a few more steps into the light; hers is a voice worth hearing.
Tom Brosseau is ever the affable raconteur, and he picks up the mantle of between song banter comfortably as he steps up on to the stage with his guitar and apologises for his jet lag! Tom is a great teller of tales, both lyrically and in his audience interaction. Tonight’s set is largely from his ‘Posthoumous Success’ album. He regales us with how a friend’s repost in a silly argument lead to the Smog esque ‘You Don’t Know My Friends’ and how a recurring dream in which Dave Grohl is chained up and playing drums in Hole was the inspiration for ‘Favourite Colour Blue’. He laments not being able to take a band on tour, but is joined by Shelley Short whose country-sweet vocals are a fitting accompaniment.
Tom and Shelley opt to play the last few songs in the middle of the audience, which makes the already intimate show feel like I’m watching him play in someone’s lounge. The unplugged rendition of Tom Waits’ ‘Innocent When You Dream’ was soft, and a world away from the gravelly original and continued to play in my head on the way home. It’s a shame more people weren’t around to see him play tonight, he deserves the attention of more pairs of ears.