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Mike Andrews/Resonate/Omar's Silver Lightship/Mad Library

The Angel, Exeter - 31/8/04

Free music, expensive wine...

Mike Andrews opened tonight with an acoustic set which left me a bit ambivalent. On the one hand he was a decent singer and guitar player and played some very good music which would have sat well in a quieter environment. On the other hand the same thing could be said about most solo performers with an acoustic guitar I’ve came across. So as good as he is it’s hard to see what would make him stand out from the crowd. He could do with being a bit more confident and I think he’d be better suited to singing with a full band but I guess it would be a case of finding one. Good, especially for a first performance.
6 out of 10



Resonate were missing something tonight, a bassist. Apparently they couldn’t get hold of him, which is odd. But it makes it all the more phenomenal that they sounded so good. Not exactly a perfect performance and they sound better with the whole band actually there but still impressive, a testimony to pure talent and excellent song writing. The drumming on the new song they played just left me staring on in slack jawed wonderment. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again and I’ll keep saying it until it magically comes true but Resonate are a band that are going places. Or at least they should be.
7 out of 10




Next on was Omar’s Silver Lightship and despite my “customary” involvement being awful even by my peculiar standards it was still a good set. Appropriately enough it didn’t really get going until the intro song, which for some reason was half way through the performance. After that though they played very well, the vocals, which still sound a bit hit-and-miss from time to time, really came together with the always excellent music tonight and showed what a good band they are turning into, which makes it an even bigger shame that they won’t be playing as much any more. Catch them while you can.
8 out of 10




I was feeling oddly drained tonight so I wasn’t in the mood for dancing, not even to Mad Library so I remained seated. This is where I had an epiphany of sorts. I remembered that you don’t have to dance to Mad Library for them to be utterly fantastic. You can just sit there and let the music run over you and lose yourself completely in it. Just close your eyes and let the spacey, funky, jazzy tunes lift you like some kind of wonderful drug. And if it is a drug then I’m afraid I’m addicted. They were at the top of their form tonight as an instrumental quartet and I really don’t know what I’m going to do without them. Maybe start a help group.
10 out of 10 mofo