Classy rock and roll: Kitty, Daisy & Lewis live in Sheffield

Many moons ago, we saw bright young things Kitty, Daisy & Lewis touring their debut album at Clwb Ifor Bach and were suitably impressed with their r'n'b/blues/swing/rock/you name it mix. Moving forward 8 years and the recorded output of the band (definitely still bright and young!) has strengthened - I strongly recommend listening to latest album The Third - a lot more original writing and plenty of sass. The opportunity to hear them live again was a definite yes. Not to mention a good excuse for a weekend trip to Sheffield.

Dosed up on Remo's coffee and with a pit stop at The Devonshire Cat, we arrived at The Plug to see support band Kiziah and The Kings from Doncaster. We'd not researched the band before, but they are a pretty funky mix of soul/rock/reggae with a very confident manner; and a pretty good front singer with Kiziah. An enjoyable set - their sounds are available (and definitely worth a listen) at Bandcamp, Soundcloud etc.


Tan Tan and the band

The Plug filled up for the main show; it seems K D & L have picked up a vocal and enthusiastic fan base! The set mostly consisted of songs from newest album The Third, with a few older songs thrown in - in particular ending with a classic 'Going Up The Country'. Part way through the set, the band invited guest trumpeter Eddie Tan Tan Thornton on stage to join them. Thornton features on The Third; his infectious humour and classy performance was a joy, with a lot of infectious dancing amongst the audience. The musicianship of the Durham siblings has, if anything, got even better. They shared around instruments with ease and the performance level never dipped throughout the hour and a half set. Kitty was in some ways the anchor lead singer - and a very good one, with plenty of charisma. The band (including dad Graeme - Daddy Grazz - and mum Ingrid Weiss) clearly work very well together and the result was a slick, fun, exciting evening.


Lewis

Hopefully it won't be another 8 years until we see them again...

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Pigeon Funk

Notes on a very random purchase. Earlier today I acquired Venetian Snares 'Rossz Csillag Alatt Sz ü letett ' purely on the basis of the language and artwork. Its certainly something different - and most definitely not pop. After a bit of searching: Venetial Snares is, according to Wikipedia, the performing name of Aaron Funk, who seems to specialise in experimental tracks in odd time signatures. Article here . The sleeve notes for this album (whose title is Hungarian for 'Born under a bad star') poses the question: what if, for just a day, we could both be pigeons? Interessant. Apparently this concept (a day in the life of a Hungarian pigeon) is non-typical of Venetian Snares sound, but one could ask, does Mr Funk do 'typical'? On first listening, the sound of this CD mixes classical/traditional Hungarian sounds and breakbeats. but aside from that? Definitely a 'listen for yourself' artist; try the website , fan site or myspace .

Lang Lang: a little bit of stardust in Southam Hall

Lang Lang with Anita Pari Like many National Arts Centre regulars, the idea of a Lang Lang concert sounded fantastic... except that for me the Gala tickets are rather too expensive. As a result the turnout for today's masterclass with young artists Anita Pari (Ottawa), Alexander Malikov (Calgary), and Tina Chong (Banff) in Southam Hall was pretty good. No surprises that there were photographers and a TV camera all over the stage... so much so that during Lang's analysis of Malikov's rendition of Transcendental Étude No 8 'Wild Hunt' (Liszt), someone shouted at the cameraman to move. To my mind they seemed a little intrusive on the performances, but none of the artists seemed to take any notice. Lang Lang with Tina Chong Up first and for me the best performance was Anita Pari with the captivating Ballade No 1 by Chopin. In comparison, Malikov's performance did not have anywhere near as much projection. Final performer Tina Chong seemed

New talent at Southminster

As a follow-on from last weekend's excellent Chopin concert, there is an afternoon of New Artists from the NAC's Summer Music Institute at Southminster United Church on 17th June. Entitled 'Dover Beach and other works for summertime', the concert features new artists Katarzyna Sadej , Emily Nenninger , Drew Santini, Hannah Min, Paul Casey , Karen Kang and Bryan Wagorn. I had the chance to hear Bryan Wagorn at one of University of Ottawa's Concerts at the NAC 4th Stage concerts back in February and thoroughly enjoyed his performance. The proposed programme is very enticing: MENDELSSOHN String Quartet No. 2 in A minor, Op. 13 MONIUSZKO Sen (The Dream) Prząśniczka (Spinner Girl) SZYMANOWSKI Lecioły Zórazie (The Swans Were Flying) Ściani Dumbek (The Dark Forest) CHOPIN Piosnka Litewska (Lithuanian Folksong) Moja Pieszczotka

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