Gig Review - Sam Isaac
Thursday 10th October 2008 @ Louisiana, Bristol
With Support From: The Attika State, New Cassette
Last time I watched Sam Isaac live, it was very much a scaled down, intimate affair. He was supporting Kate Walsh at St Georges and the show was just him, his guitar and a mate on acoustic bass. It was an enjoyable set but I remember a distinct imbalance between Sam’s deep, powerful singing voice and the fragility of the acoustic strummings backing it. His songs were crying out for the full band treatment and so tonight I am licking my lips; not just content with a bassist and drummer, we’re going to be treated to six of the blighters onstage, bulking out these tunes to full, fantastic effect.
We clamber upstairs in the Louisiana, halfway through the second support’s set. The Attika State are in full swing, buzzing off playing to a decent sized crowd and spirits are extra high because, as the banner states in the corner, it’s Tom Attika’s 18th birthday. Today! Yay!
New Cassette, the third and final support, do a good job of trying to sound exactly like The Enemy/The Pigeon Detectives. Yes, they are tight and the songs are vaguely foot-tapable but as my mate points out, what makes them boring is the fact you can tell exactly where each song will go after the first twenty seconds; verse, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, instrumental, chorus, chorus, blah, blah, blah, boring! Move on.
It seems a lot of the audience tonight were here to watch one of the supports because when Sam Isaac and co. finally take the stage, the crowd size has, if anything, shrunk. Their loss though because this headline band put on a fantastic show. With the giant, ginger figure of Sam Isaac at the front with his booming voice and with several guitars, bass, drums, cello, xylophone and the largest array of keyboards I’ve ever seen all squeezed on the Louisiana’s low stage behind him, these songs about love, life and loss are given a real impetus and oomph! Quiet, acoustic, ballad-esk numbers that I had become familiar with, when played in full band mode are completely transformed and sound brilliant! Tracks like Fire Fire and A Cinematic Low are really given a purpose and body with echoes of keyboard and some delicious, swooning bass lines buried in the cacophony of indie-pop. Tonight’s standout track though has to be Sam’s new number, Sticker, Stars and Tape, the title track of a new EP, which sees the nerd on electric guitar at the side of the stage emerge as a brutal riff machine!
However, for a large proportion of the crowd tonight, all these fantastic songs take a back seat as Sam Isaac’s new bassist, a certain Matt Grimble, aka. The Grimble/Grizza/The G Man/Grimble Wimble/Grimbo, was playing his first hometown show since being integrated into the Isaac family. Between songs were incessant chants of; “Grimble! Grimble!” and; “We love you Grimbo!” much to the enjoyment of the fresh-faced blonde and the increasing, comic annoyance of Sam Isaac; “This is the last time I’m playing a Bristol show with him!”
At the end of the short set there were some technical difficulties and so the no-nonsense Isaac, now actually annoyed, ripped out his amp leads, bellowed; “OK, ACOUSTIC!” at the very top of booming voice, clambered to the front of the stage, leaving his mic behind to burst into a raw and personal version of Carbon Dating, ensuring everyone would remember the show for a good while.
Matthew Whittle www.matthewwhittleblog.blogspot.com
Copyright © 2008