Towards the end of his set at the Drake Underground on Tuesday night, Gruff Rhys announced that he was about to go into “dangerous territory” by playing a request, more specifically a request he did not foresee.
Like most performers, Gruff Rhys has a setlist that he works from, and so deviating from that setlist could indeed be dangerous territory. But if he was in any way daunted by the addition of an extra song, Rhys certainly didn’t show it, other than him taking a brief minute to decide if he wanted to slip the song in before his planned set closer “Gyrru Gyrru Gyrru” or not. He opted to end things off with that request, “Colonise The Moon,” and the song made for a solid end to a set that also included such highlights as “Celestial Candyfloss,” “Iolo” and “Bad Friend.”
Following Rhys, This Is The Kit took to the stage. The English folk rock band, fronted by Kate Stables, put on a memorable show, with the bulk of the songs taken from their latest album, the Gruff Rhys-produced Careful of Your Keepers.
A few songs into their set, Stables announced midway through “Inside Outside” that it was a special show as it was bassist Rozi Plain’s birthday and followed that announcement by firing off a tiny confetti cannon onstage. It was a memorable moment, followed shortly thereafter by a quip from Stables as she took a moment to tune: “I used up all my smooth on the birthday announcement and now it’s just going to be 45 minutes of tuning.”
Another humourous moment came after the band played “Slider” and Stables pointed out that in Bristol, a children’s slide is referred to as a slider. This led to an audience member volunteering the information that a mini burger is also referred to as a slider, which in turn led to someone else adding that a kid on a slide could also reasonably be referred to as a slider.
I could have contributed further to this conversation, but decided not to mention anything about the old Jerry O’Connoll TV series Sliders as that would have been far too much of an ordeal to explain if she wasn’t familiar. Though that didn’t stop another concertgoer from bringing up an Evel Knievel documentary when Stables later mentioned that it was the legendary motorcycle daredevil’s birthday that day as well, so maybe I should have taken my chance to talk up the ’90s sci-fi series.
This Is The Kit continue on their North American tour into early November before heading back across the pond to play a series of shows across the UK and Ireland. Check them out if you get the chance.