Sunday Driver @ Hoxton Hall

Friday 20th April saw the launch of Mutiny, the second album from fusion band Sunday Driver. The event took place at Hoxton Hall in East London and was a virtual sell out. Supporting Sunday Driver were She Makes War featuring the Olympians, as part of their UK tour for their recent Little Battles album launch.

Hoxton Hall
This was my first visit to Hoxton Hall and it is a great little venue. There is a two tier stage, a good standing area capable of taking around 100-150 people, at a push and a balcony area. Sadly, only part of the balcony can be used when there are people on stage but that's OK because they should be down watching. The bar area is quite small and restricted in what it sells but for those that need to drink, there are several pubs, right outside the door.

At first glance, this looked like a venue that would work best for comedy or small plays. It was a pleasant surprise, therefore, that the lighting and acoustics were good and didn't detract from the performance on stage.

Prior to the start, Sunday Driver hosted its own party upstairs for the VIPs. Unfortunately, this led to someone on the balcony knocking a drink over as Cajita, a member of the Olympians, was just about to start playing. For me, that was a little disrespectful and throughout the She Makes War support set, there was a degree of noise from the party upstairs. Both incidents were annoying as a listener so a note to bands - If you are going to ask someone to open for you, give them the respect you want when you come on stage.

She Makes War
As I expected, She Makes War featuring the Olympians were solid although busy stages do create the occasional technical glitch. However, when these occurred, they were quickly dealt with by the sound technicians and everything got back on track quickly. For this performance, the Olympians were reduced to just three - Kat Arney, Milly McGregor and Cajita, although this did not diminish the performance at all.

This is the second time I've seen She Makes War featuring the Olympians and after a week of touring, it was a much slicker and altogether more professional performance. Admittedly, at the launch of Little Battles, Laura admitted that there had only been two practice sessions with everyone available but even so, the stage presence is maturing and getting better.

If there is one criticism it is that despite her ability to connect with the audience, Laura needs to work on her audience interaction. When things go wrong and the tech team are attending to it, either Laura or one of the Olympians needs to distract the audience. I see this with very experienced bands and it is a skill that only comes from spending a lot of time on stage.

Of all the tracks played tonight I really like Let This Be, Butterflies and Scared To Capsize.

The running order was:
Delete
Let This Be
Butterflies
No Fireworks
Slow Puncture
In The Boat
Scared To Capsize

Sunday Driver
First, a confession. I am not wildly enthusiastic about a lot of World Music or Fusion. The reason is that much of it is poor, badly constructed and has less musical value than lift music. That which does rise above this standard often barely suffices as background music at dinner parties. Occasionally I get to hear really good examples of fusion and Sunday Driver are that rare exception of not only rising above the noise but playing a brand of music that is very engaging and catchy.

Given my apparently dislike of both genres, why on earth was I at a Sunday Driver gig? Twitter, She Makes War and Kat Arney take all the blame here. It started with the twitter invite from Laura (@warriorgrrl) to attend the Little Battles album launch two weeks ago. Not only was that a great night out but I found myself intrigued at the sight of a harpist on stage. That led to following Kat Arney on Twitter (@harpistkat) and between her and Laura, I found out about the Sunday Driver @sundaydriver launch and thought, why not! And why not indeed as I had a great night out.

While many bands seem to fight to create a musical and visual identity for themselves, Sunday Driver seem to have managed both. The musical mix and the whole dress-up thing that most of the band have embraced, made them not only musically appealing on the night but also visually appealing. Unfortunately, I messed up the camera settings and what photos I did take, don't really do them any justice at all.

So how to describe this visual feast? The easiest way is to do a run-down of the members of Sunday Driver.

Chandy Nath, vocalist and front woman, was resplendent on the night in a green and gold Hindustani dress with matching shawl.

Kat Arney, harpist, spoon player and clarinettist in a Basque and fishnets was a complete contrast.

On the other side of Chandy was a new member of the band whose name I didn't get.

Amit Jogia, tabla player was directly behind Chandry and dressed in a very long, blue silk jacket that was quite something.

Next to Amit was Joel Clayton, guitar and sitar player with top hat, flowery waistcoat who looked like he'd just stepped out of Steeleye Span or any 60's band.

Behind Joel was Melon, bass player extrordinaire.

Best dressed man of the night was guitarist Chemise, sitting behind Kat's harp in full evening dress and top hat. When I first arrived and he walked across the room I was almost expecting an evening of Victorian music or an invitation to a steampunk game rather than some excellent fusion music.

Last and never to be ignored, is drummer Scot Jowett who, along with Amit, kept things moving along all night.

It was not just the band who were suitably attired. Several of the VIPs were wearing Victorian dress as was one of the people on the merchandise desk and this just gave the whole evening a feel of something special.

It is a reality for many bands that making money from ticket sales is never going to be the main source of income. As a result, the ability of the merchandise team to raise money is critical. Finding the right balance between selling as much merch as possible and making as much profit as possible can be a challenge. I have been to enough gigs over several decades to have seen the extremes of overpricing and effectively giving it away.

On the night, Sunday Driver had both CDs, a band willing to sign them, a new T-Shirt, a personalised USB stick and some other bits and pieces. The pricing was such that I was able to get both In The City of Dreadful Night and The Mutiny, plus a T-Shirt for £20. By spending £20 I also got a free goody bag and a cake. The latter two were unexpected and actually were quite good. The goody bag, in particular, not only included some spices to make tomato soup but also a sugar mouse, a USB stick, a party popper and some other bits and pieces. This was a great novelty approach.

Both CDs are worth buying and not just for the music. The artwork is very nicely done and with The Mutiny, you also get the lyrics. What did surprise me is that only Chandy and Kat appeared on both albums.

So let's get to the music.

The running order (at bottom of review), shows a mix of tracks from both albums that Sunday Driver have released. Starting with Bol and Spoon from their first album, Sunday Driver cleverly mixed tracks from both albums together. For those bands that are not releasing a concept album where the tracks have to be played in sequence, this is a great way to persuade the audience to buy multiple albums.

Don't get me wrong, playing a new album in its entirety is also a good way to persuade people to buy it as they get a complete listen before you buy experience but when you finally get into your older material, if it is not in the same vein, people may not like it at all.

Chandy has an amazing voice. Not only does she have a great vocal range but she projects her voice powerfully and, I suspect, would have been just as capable of reaching the audience without a microphone as with it.

From spoons to the harp and then onto clarinet, not just one clarinet but two of them, demonstrates the musical versatility of Kat. I have now heard tracks she has written and co-written for two bands and while she may sound like a jack of all trades, she seems to be mistress of all as well.

With so many instruments on stage, I was expecting the tabla to be lost. Instead, it was just the opposite. Amit made the tabla part of every track, carrying the rhythm and providing a base on which the music was constructed.

It was clear that both Scot on drums and Amit have found a way to prevent the drumming from overpowering the sound of the tabla while ensuring that both are intrinsic to the music rather than taking it in turns to control the rhythm.

Joel was outstanding. I like the sound of the sitar but it is an instrument that, when you do hear it, can be too powerful, strident and often artifically in terms of the music. In Joel's hands it was neither strident nor did it sound out of place. Instead, it added layers of subtlety to the music.

Melon on bass was perhaps a little lost. There were no great bass solos allowing him to take centre stage but listen carefully and the the bass is clearly there, helping to underpin the all round sound.
That leaves Chemise. Sitting towards the back of the stage, half hidden by the harp, he reminded me the enigmatic keyboard player from Sparks. He gave off that same coolness and detachedness from what was happening around him but along with Melon and Joel, the guitars are the engine room of Sunday Driver.

What may surprise many is that there were no keyboards, no obvious loop machines and no computers controlling backing tracks. This was real, live music.

I was also struck by how upbeat and bubbly the music was and how the change of pace, rhythm and mix of instruments all worked to bring it to life. Chandy clearly relishes her role as the front woman of this band and even tried to get the audience to participate in several songs, most notably Concubine Waltz.

Tracks like Mechanical Angel, Clockwork Tiger and The Fantasist really stood out along with Glass House Riot which is a brilliant encore track for this band. Although I'm calling these three tracks out, the rest of the night was also very enjoyable and I've found myself playing Black Spider and Circus a couple of times over the weekend.

So would I go and watch Sunday Driver again? Yes and I will be waiting to see what they do next. My only hope is that it doesn't take several years for the third album to come around as the group as they appeared on stage seem to have both a musical and visual presence that can only get better over time.

Sunday Driver Set List
Bol and Spoon
Circus
Black Spider
The Fantasist
Concubine Waltz
The General
Mechanical Angel
Sweet Dreams
Clockwork Tiger
Rats
The Suitor
Glass House Riot
Govinda

Images from the night can be found on https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150687087203148.392408.534713147&type=3"> my Facebook page