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Hidden Door Festival, Leith Theatre, Edinburgh - Sylvan Esso

  • Published in Live


Arriving late due to my indecision on what to wear that night (what?! My weather app says it’s supposed to be 17 degrees but it’s colder than winter with that damn haar out there! Tshirt? Under three layers? Sweatshirt?) we walked in on the E M I L I E quartet. Not too many people had congregated on the floor as the night was still young and maybe everyone else was stuck at home in their own clothing indecision. We took the opportunity to roam around Leith Theatre to look at the installations. By far my favourite one was lurking in the basement. Video work by Clara Hastrup showed humour and skill behind all those images. Red hot bacon frying over lime green forest fires: Clever. The music filtered down through the building; it blended in well with the surroundings, enhancing the experience of looking at the artwork.

When we popped back up to ground level, Emilie Atkinson and her three were winding up their set.  It was a good introduction to the night of electronic music.

As I looked about me, I noticed the crowd this second night was noticeably younger than the crowd from the previous evening. Maybe the older kids didn’t feel like putting on their dancing shoes or perhaps these kids were more savvy with what was going down in the world of electro pop, indie pop and all the other electro words and pop descriptions needed to define what we were hearing.

After an hour’s wait (it must take a long time to unplug and reassemble the stage according to the musicians’ needs) Happy Meals showed themselves, backlit and two shadows, ready to perform. Apparently, the mid-calf black pants suit is the costume of choice for musicians this season as Suzanne Rodden was sporting a flared trouser leg version of this season’s wardrobe staple. She excited the crowd by joining them, hopping over the ineffective fence. We lost sight of her several times, sometimes for several minutes. She was also doing this barefoot which was either brave or crazy. Crazy brave? There was hair flipping, hair twirling and a few back bends. The music would rush forward to find the faster beat it needed for the next number. For the final crescendo, Lewis Cook and Suzanne disappeared in a puff of smoke after a scream. Right. That’s Happy Meals then.

At this point I needed to pop outside. As I exited the building, I noticed a bank of people all staring roofwards. What do you do when you see loads of people looking up? You look up too to see what they’re all staring at. Apparently, they were all gazing up towards Kathryn Spence and Tess Letham as they danced dangerously close to the edge of the roof. It was beautiful when you were within earshot of the music, however, when you were out of it - for example queueing up for the portaloo – it looked a bit bizarre. One needed the other.

It was finally time for the headliners to show themselves. The floor was packed, as was the upper lever where we were sitting directly across from the stage.  When the door to the back of the stage opened, the crowd went wild…only to realise it was a stage worker. The crowd cheered again when another shadow appeared. Er. Still neither Amelia Meath nor Nick Sanborn. Take three, crowd went wild and yes, this was what we were waiting for. This was my most favourite act of the night. I loved the banter with the audience (we learned a new word for ocean breeze – Haar!) to the quirky dance moves (both) and yes, a black mid-calf jumpsuit. Hearing them at home compared to seeing them on stage are two very different experiences; things are amped up several notches and far less mellow in their on-stage performance. They very clearly have a big following here in Edinburgh and it is easy to see why. I was already a fan of their music but this experience has made me a fan of them as performers. Lots of fun, lots of energy and rockin' dance moves. If only she would make a How To Dance Awesome Like Me dance video. I would sign up for that.

Hidden Door continues until June 03 - further details here.

Further images from this show can be found here.

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Hidden Door Festival, Leith Theatre, Edinburgh - Opening Night

  • Published in Live
Tonight was a triumph, albeit with a slightly odd running order making for a disjointed start.
 
The billing of Gwenno, Dream Wife and Nadine Shah together was an excellent mix of the new and the maturing. Only the placing of Stina Tweeddale (one half of Honeyblood) as the second act rather cooled things off after the initial fine start.
 
Gwenno and band were on sharp at 19:00 and turned in a great performance, full of anecdotal chat, very well received renditions of tracks from current album Le Kov (including the audience chanting along in Cornish about cheese) and earlier material. Clearly pleased to be part of the festival she was full of good cheer and thoroughly at home in the excellent venue.
 
Change over times were decent tonight, with some contemporary dance going on on the auditorium floor at a couple of points just to divert the attention. Doubtless this would have proved difficult if the event had sold out. Stina Tweeddale was therefore not too long in coming onstage to do her best with solo versions of some Honeyblood tracks. To her credit she at least kept it electric. Shorn of their drum parts, however, the tunes too often didn't do the business (unlike when seen here). As the opening act or in a more intimate setting she'd have been fine but, whether to meet a promise to appear or whatever, this wasn't the most inspired programming.
 
Thankfully the threads of excitement remaining from Gwenno & gang's performance were easily grasped & pulled tight by Dream Wife. Currently on the crest of a wave the quartet were brimming with energy and all too happy to unleash it upon the appreciative crowd. Obviously relishing the space afforded by the theatre's stage singer Rakel Mjöll in particular bounded about its entirety, striking balletic poses now and again when returning briefly to a standstill. Less controversial than sometimes reported when headlining they stuck pretty much to entertaining, with just a brief attempt to conflate the social mores of not quite 100 years ago as reflected backstage at the theatre (changing rooms denoted by gender as well as place in the company - instrumentalist, singer etc.) with modern gender bias. Depends I suppose who you're happy disrobing in front of at work although I doubt it's a free-for-all at the Royal Lyceum or elsewhere.
 
I last saw Nadine Shah in 2015 (here) but she seems to have undergone something of a change, into a rather more vampish stage presence (although in no way camp or pretentious). Being fed up singing "about my crap lovelife" maybe has something to do with that. Current album Holiday Destination is though (probably) her most political to date so all black attire, Doc Martins and a serious bob make more sense. Coupled with her easy engagement with the audience and clear pleasure at finally playing Edinburgh she and the band could do no wrong, evening managing to mention the negative aspects of nationalism without getting heckled before later eliciting a resounding cheer for deriding Brexit. All in this was the performance we deserved after the mostly great work put in to prime us for it and it capped off a great introduction for those of us who'd not previously partaken of the festival's musical programme.
 
Special mention should be given here to the lighting onstage at Leith Theatre. A lot of thought has clearly gone in to the displays used during the performances and that, coupled with the very well mixed and balanced sound (helped along by the great acoustics) contributed a lot to the overall show. Further evidence that there could have been some great shows staged here in the 30 years of it's ludicrous period of disuse but a very positive pointer to what can be achieved from now on. Well done to all concerned.
 
Hidden Door continues until June 03 - further details here.
 
Further photographs from this part of it can be found here.
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