Eccentronic...

The Queens Rd Social Club, Sheffield was possibly the most appropriate venue you would ever find for an evening like The Eccentronic Revue. Sometimes all you need is a warm pleasingly large function room with a carpet that’s not sticky and some purveyors of synth and you’ve got a fair idea the night is going to look after you.The Pygmy Globetrotters initiated proceedings with a solid set of sparse straight backed electronica. They are no strangers to live performance in the city and while I have seen them before this performance worked a little better for me than previous outings. Alternating between rudimentary movement inducing tracks, playful and pretty melodies and episodes of glowering menace they held the audiences in a way that most opening bands don’t actually usually manage.

They were followed by The Pony Harvest who I want to sum up with the word ‘quaint’ but somehow feel that wouldn’t be fair or enough. Suffice to say If you were to soundtrack this the people that were there (and there was a mixed bag it has to be said) then The Pony Harvest would more than likely be my choice. Friendly and comfortable synth noodlings and crow laden (yes really) theramin.

Skywatchers brought a more ethereal slant to proceedings. Kevin Pearce comes armed with a genuinely haunting voice which when interspersed with the staunch washes of sound provided via his I Monster collaborators does have a genuine knack of capturing an audiences attention. Worthy prospects indeed.

Headliners The Chanteuse & The Crippled Claw rounded off the evening (with the exception of Ralph Razor who was on hand for the post gig party tunes) with their first live performance, Candie Payne and Adrian Flanagan make an interesting if unlikely pairing. Payne’s delivery has always been refreshingly free of showboating with a glacial cool presence on stage. Flanagan counters this with a sense of the bizarre and a wry sense of humour. The chemistry works ideally, especially when you add the discrete melancholy of Lucy Fawcett’s trumpet playing and the I Monster equation. It all gels to give you an excellent little band that effortlessly charmed the crowd (throwing biscuits at us helped a bit as well). First rate.