With so much talk of disappearing audiences at gigs across the city, Bristolbands.com seems to be bucking the trend in a convincing fashion.

Despite the fact that the Bristol Band Showcase occupies a regular Tuesday night slot at The Fleece, (a night usually reserved for pressing domestic chores), audiences have been growing steadily to an altogether respectable size.

Even the smoking ban couldn’t dent the burgeoning throng that gathered to appreciate some top-drawer performances from three local acts this Tuesday night.

Pete Shepherd, drafted in at very short notice, played some reel purdy guitar and sang some mighty ugly words, making a trip to the dark-side a strangely inspiring experience.

A monolith of a man, his towering stage presence offers a visual paradox to his peculiarly sweet sounding ballads, with their equally paradoxical lyric... as incongruous as an angel rasping out a curse, making depravity, desolation and uncurbed bitterness bizarrely endearing.

Augmented by some more rock-oriented numbers, thunderously conveyed, there’s no doubting that this man is utterly committed to what he does.

Rhonda Valley Pigeon Federation funked up the proceedings with a lively and instantly accessible set.

As tight as you like, they proffered an array of memorable, hip shifting songs, all delivered with passion and a theatrical touch (courtesy of 'The Amazing Bass'), who very definitely knows his way round his instrument, offering up some pretty impressive hooks.

It’s not easy to fault this band for their musicianship and instant appeal. They make great music, mixing it up with all manner of influences and quirky arrangements, artfully assembled, and convincingly delivered.

The news that they are going into the studio to record an album at the end of the week, was greeted with unmasked anticipation – laying down some well produced material to replace the homemade tracks currently playing on the bands myspace is definitely a step in the right direction; (these are in no way representative of how good this band really is).

Apparently the name Rhonda Valley Pigeon Federation is taken from an organisation presently being investigated by the fraud squad, a story which makes it faintly more interesting, but still doesn’t make it work for me.

Of course, these things are entirely subjective, and Kerrang recently gave the name a big thumbs up… perhaps I’m missing something? But then there’s the question of the pigeon on a stick (which actually gets used to play a few chords during their live set).

Again, this is a questionable decision to my mind; and it’s not that I’m averse to a bit of showmanship (Gogol Bordello probably being one of the best performances I’ve seen this year)… but to get this kind of thing to work, it’s got to be seamless, and done with utter confidence. If not, it reflects badly rather than enhances a performance.

I’d much prefer to see this talented band focus more on the music, and cut out the am-dram antics until they feel entirely at home performing live. Their predominantly funky indie pop is good enough to stand up on it’s own.

Clumsy rounded off the night with consummate ease. A cover of Bill Withers ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’ was stunningly good, prompting a moment of reverence before being sent, almost involuntarily, shimmying across the dance floor, as if possessed by the dancing demons.

My ears would have preferred me to stand, with mouth slightly agape, looking somewhat daft, but my feet were having none of it. Such is the compulsion induced by the winning combination of soulful vocals with a congas and bongos percussive compliment.

These boys clearly live their music, but have not fallen victim to the easy trap of taking themselves too seriously, making their light-hearted performance seem altogether effortless.

Considering the plethora of musical influences that infuse their music; skiffle, jazz, reggae, blues and soul with and just a hint of samba lending their performance a kind of carnival euphoria, it’s clear that they have worked tremendously hard to make everything seem so simple.

This is the thinking man’s feel-good music.

Review: Rachel Wild
Images © Kev @ Bristolbands.com