Published on December 6th, 2007 | by Helen Irvine
Autumn Antifolk Festival 2007 Friday / 12 Bar Club, London, 16th November 2007
Kinkajou
Lail Arad
Spinmaster Plantpot
The Other Dances
You & Me
Friday 16 Nov 2007
What the fuck is Antifolk?” Will you find out? As an antifolk reviewer you may or may not get the answer in a straight forward way. What I can tell you is what happened at Friday’s Autumn Antifolk Festival (just about)
So, 500 words on Friday’s Antifolk. Discuss:
One reason you should take notes when reviewing for long stretches of time is that trying to repeat what was said/sung… well the introduction went something like this “play to lose, lose to win , folks it’s Planet Zim.” Now I know that is a terrible attempt at what was actually said, but however thought it was funny at the time. Making his debut at the antifolk festival, Planet Zim confesses that he talks alot and steals other peoples songs and adapts them for the ukulele (oops I haven’t mentioned that he plays the ukulele – that’s the main bit).
If we were to judge Dennis Scunt by the content of his songs, we might be led to believe he was unlucky in love. Always having shit in his hand and when he does meet the girl he believes is the one the girl is a guy. Oh dear. Of course they are only songs and we love them. Dennis keeps the crowd going with quirky stories.
Another man that has mastered the art of story-telling through song is Steve White. Teaching us about genetically modified foods and packets of salads (maybe story telling is not the best way to describe him, unless it was him that told Heather Mills that she would be vegan by drinking rat’s milk – ooh topical!).
I have been looking forward to seeing Larry Pickleman again and was not disappointed. Playing the hits ‘Three Midgets’ and ‘Go to school’ (a song that’s been in my head since Friday) I was in my element.
As Kinkajou play their set I am asked “Isn’t that folk? can they play at an antifolk gig” of course they can Kinkajou are brilliant.
One man that is definitely antifolk is Spinmaster Plantpot. So famous in antifolk circles (and Channel 5) that the audience were singing along. Not content with the time given for his own set (Or Scrappy just asked him), Plantpot remained on stage with Scrappy Hood to add ‘oh-oh’s’ and such. As always Scrappy performed an excellent set and had the audiences full attention.
It is more or less accepted that when Paul Hawkins and the Awkward Silences play Chaos will ensue. Tonight’s gig making no exceptions, Medders climbing up the balcony (yes I do mean up it). Naked Lunch, crowd participation trying to get Paul naked, oh and they sang some songs as well.
The Other Dances Beautiful songs from Ben, joined by new band the other dances – smiley Uni and Karl. As a singer songwriter Ben is a brilliant, with the new additions he is even better.
You and Me ‘Oh My God it’s the man from the Office’ of course this is not the selling point – their cool songs are gorgeous.
My favourite song by Lail Arad was‘Good Girl groupie’ lovely softly sung lyrics made a beautiful end to the first half of the festival.
So are you any the wiser? probably not. In case you are wondering I made it through the rest of the weekend, but I’m not going to tell you about it. I will leave that to Dedee who will do a much better job…
About the Author
Helen Irvine Where there are underground gigs in London, Helen is there. Especially when the gig is in a dive bar or pub so she can have a drink at the same time.
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