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Review by Ben Pahari
The intimate subterranean venue has never failed to surprise me with the range of acts and styles which feature in its regularly irregular line ups.This week’s Friday line-up consisted of a highly unconventional DJ set, an acoustic folkster, and two very different bands.
The first act, playing a DJ set were ‘A Band, Yesterday’ who litmus tested the crowd’s alternative/ experimental credentials by pumping a pulsating, noisy Clockwork Orange-esque synth-fuzz throughout the venue. The one song set which began at a moderate volume, gradually increased to an all pervasive din which could potentially have driven the weak-hearted away. Oddly though, after maybe five or so minutes of bafflement I actually got into it- in a strange way. Things got slightly less weird from here on in.
The next act was probably the odd-one-out of the night. Steve Watson, a young acoustic guitar player, performed a set of melodic instrumental numbers that showcased his virtuoso rag-picking guitar skills. However, the lack of vocals and the Odyssean length of some songs meant that the performance became a bit boring too quickly.
Alnegator, the first band to perform, were an innovative sounding rock act, mostly instrumental, and featuring University of York students including some members from experimental band ‘The! Spoon? (and the)’ who performed at Battle of the Bands last week. The quality, variety of song structure and musicianship was good enough to captivate and get me going for many of the songs, though at points the lack of any sustained vocal presence (a theme for the evening) was slightly disappointing. That said- I particularly enjoyed the brief (ironic) homage to Phil Collins at the end of one of their songs- via rendition of a few lines of ‘In the Air Tonight’.
Last up were Mugstar, a band who had been described to me beforehand as chugging space rockers – with a heavy emphasis on ‘chugging’. Creating a lunar sound (this might make them sound bad, but they weren’t really) with (chugging) guitars and reverbed up sax, Mugstar were a cross between the Velvet Underground’s ‘White Light White Heat’ and Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ (though maybe not quite as good as either of those guys).
All I know is this: with eclectic, exciting and often funny line-ups, Basement Bar is not a place that you can afford to miss out on. It’s cheap too, typically about £3 on the door; a charming and intimate venue that is a personal favourite of mine. Go there.
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