I climbed the stairs leading to the recently reopened Folklore Rooms above the Cauldron, set on the corner of the always busy Queens Road. The flaunt venue was appropriately packed, mostly seated. It was the seventh anniversary of its opening, and the crowd was in on the occasion.
You could have heard a needle drop as Amelia Caesar introduced her songs. Her bare-bones acoustic set had us all shushing at each other, all in respect for the atmosphere created by this freshly dressed venue. Golden lights accented deep blue walls and oak browns around the room: rugs, crescent moons and flowers, all lovingly arranged by the father of the venue, Jacko Hooper.
I didn’t spot our host until Amelia’s set came to an end. We showered her with one more round of applause before Jacko took to the mic. The man spoke with the total confidence of somebody who managed to keep their venue afloat through the pandemic. As hard as it is for most businesses to survive the first five years, it is especially true for the ever-neglected music industry. Especially after a run in with a global crisis.
In the time between the first two acts, I reconnected with old friends and brought a drink from the bar. When I returned to my seat, the slide guitarist (Alex) of the follow up act was tuning up. Then it struck me that, in this light, he resembled a cleaned-up version of Charlie from always sunny. He was a member of Family Fiction, a four-piece band, scaled down to an electro-acoustic duo for tonight’s performance. The leading man (George) soon joined him on stage, and they began playing.
George sang with baby eyes on the audience, he was charming. His voice was nasally and well controlled, sometimes it felt like he was about to burst out shouting as the dynamics grew, but he kept a lid on it, and his voice stood steady. I found all the choruses well thought out, the crowd either knew the words or caught up as they were repeated; the verses switched between four and six syllables per line, although I couldn’t catch a lot of the lyrics. There were harmonies between the voice and instruments, but some felt missing, that could in part due to the absence of a bass line which I’m sure would have rounded out the compositions. Alex was a reserved character, which was reflected in his deliberate slide playing. He didn’t fill the empty spaces throughout the verses with licks, but instead with droning swells which supported George’s voice and resembled a choir. He used a tremolo pedal which reminded me of Pink Floyd. The song to look out for when seeing them live is ‘Older’, which you can check out on their Instagram. The intro features some of those longing swells Alex is known for, and the song is George’s most soulful performance from the set. A big round of applause sent the two guitarists packing to make way for the headlining act.
Before the last act, I talked to the photographers scaling the walls and people who stuck around to see Dusk House. Although a row at the front left after Family Fiction closed their set, the venue quickly filled up again after I managed to secure a seat near the front. The band featured Jack on drums, Paul on bass, James on lead guitar and Lily on rhythm guitar, harmonica and vocals. No one seemed nervous. Lily said, “we are starting now”. The crowd chuckled, and the band started to play.
Everything from their scratched-up instruments to their clothes came together in a classic folk aesthetic. Music always tends to feel more authentic when the visual and audio aspects match. The addition of drums and bass was felt in the room, which felt bigger now, largely thanks to Jack who throughout the performance knew exactly when to come in. He restrains and accents beats with brushes for the first part of most songs, controlling dynamics that are a huge part of the band’s compositional style. Their songs often end on a high note, unless they instead fiddle away with a playful bass or guitar lick. Paul doesn’t stand still when playing, he is always grooving or closing his eyes to let out some backing vocals, he even sings the song ‘out in the tall grass’, the closest to a duet in their setlist. The song is playful, it breaches on sounding like the Lemon Twigs, although due to Paul being lower in the mix, I couldn’t make out the words too well.
Throughout the set, James demonstrated that he is an ace slide player. He swings with country and blues licks, and all-around sounds very influenced by Derek Trucks, but blends so many other musical backgrounds together, that his sound comes off rich and mature. His playing on calmer songs sounds lonely, longing but optimistic – the notes feel like they were stuck in his throat until he let them out. But on a song like ‘drive’ he starts to let loose, which is the closest to rock the band gets, but it’s also the only song that was missing a gritty slide solo. Perhaps it was a creative decision that kept the song from going too far out from their established sound, or maybe it is the first step in where the band may go in the future. Lily’s an intuitive driving force behind the band, her singing ties the songs together, both in the live setting and at the writing table. James and Paul later told me that she is responsible for a lot of the lyric writing and composition, especially in arranging harmonies. Her singing is exciting, she has many tricks up her sleeve across every song and can be complex without crossing the line into sounding convoluted. I’d rather not detail it too much, since the element of surprise is a huge part of their charm when seeing them for the first time. Throughout the set she doesn’t stand idle, she plays a steady acoustic rhythm role, filling in headspace and nailing that folk feel, as well as playing the harmonica, mostly for holding notes rather than leading melodies.
The last song was ‘almost anything’, following a similar formula to the others but stretching it out further than before. James sings, his voice holds confidence in a deeper shyness. The song starts with the guitar and voice alone and stays this way for a while as the drums and bass grow in the background into a steady, hypnotic drone that gets behind your ears- a proper brainwasher that’ll follow you out the venue. The crowd loved it. They kept the applause going for a while, noticeably longer than the average act I’ve seen, it said a lot about how much the band hit the spot for them. There was no encore.
Jacko seemed pleased that the night of the anniversary was a success. The band became surrounded by a crowd as they packed up, new fans and old friends who wanted to pay compliments and ask questions. One person said, “My face hurt, had a smile on my face the whole time”, whilst Will, a local musician called the band “a gold mine” when prompted for a quote. Blaze thought they sounded like a mix of Pink Floyd and the Eagles.
My personal highlight of their set was a song that doesn’t have an official title yet. It’s a song you can find on their Instagram, and it’s their sharpest written song. not to downplay their already polished set. It has been stuck in my head since I first heard it.
Although the band has no announced release plan, in the meantime you can catch Dusk House playing their first headline show at the Rossi Bar in Brighton on the 19th of November.