Anti Folk Night@ Chinnerys, Southend Thursday 18th June

The 2nd gig I attended as part of the Southend Fringe Festival.

The first artist up was "Breaking Glass"
I've seen this band once before, as I was fan of singer Mel's previous band Johnny and the Mullets. I was quite disapponted the first time, as I loved the fact her previous band was all female and had a great raw, punky sound. When I saw the new band, it was still Mel but with a male backing band and a lot more mellow. This time however, it was just Mel and another girl on the flute. It was more stripped down, but I thought it was a lot better. Some of the songs were more upbeat this time too. They did a couple of covers, including a very interesting folky version of NWA's Straight Outta Compton!

Next up was an artist we saw at the Vaudeville, The Tumbledryer Babies. It must have been a night of doing things differently, as when we saw the "band" before it was just singer Andrew with his bass guitar. This time he had a full band behind him. Again, I thought this was a lot better. I enjoyed this set more, as it was also a longer set. My friend Ruth described Andrew as like Graham Coxon which is a pretty accurate description. He also comes across as sweet and endearing, which makes you warm to him even more!

My favourite act of the evening was Charlot Webster.
She had that "geek chic" look about her and some tattoos on her leg. When she came on stage, myself and my friend Ruth wasn't sure what instrument she was playing, but then realised it was an electric uke designed like a mini guitar! It was awesome! When she sang, her voice was amazing, very similar to Regina Spektor. Again, she came across very lovely and sweet, she had even wrote the setlist on her hand so she wouldn't repeat songs!



After her set, was MJ Hibbett performing solo with just a guitar, his songs were very folky, and were
clearly meant to be witty, but wasn't my sort of humour and I found him very shouty to be honest.


Last act of the evening, I didn't catch all their set but was Deferred Success. I found their lyrics funny, and thought they were very energtic. Not a lot more I can say as only saw a small part of their set.









Overall, an interesting evening, just a shame there wasn't more of a crowd.