Fairly Sweaty

Alexander Comana and friends Some things can't be helped. Sweating profusely in the June summer sun, despite the fact you're curating a night titled 'No Sweat' that evening is one thing. Opening a blog post with a reference to bodily fluids is another. Maybe in future we'll taken action to minimise the risk of both, editing our posts down to be socially acceptable, and editing our t-shirts down to wife beaters. Despite having to contend with ridiculous heat and debilitating bouts of hayfever our second ever show last Wednesday at Cardiff Arts Institute went better than we could've possibly hoped - Alex Comana, Ratatosk and Dan Barnett were all incredible. Dan set the evening off to a flying start with lovingly crafted acoustic versions of Samoans, Circa Regna Tonat and Rescue Party tracks, with even a haunting cover of ‘Be Quiet and Drive’ thrown in for good measure. Second up Ratatosk turned heads with Rhodri Viney’s unique brand of looped ambience – we didn’t realise till yesterday that you can play a saw, let alone loop and harmonise with it (!). Bringing the evening to a close, our fellow Brother Alex Comana took to the stage armed with banjo, piano, and a rather impressive looking ‘tache (see above) to showcase some material previously confined to his Tumblr. As those of you who know us by sight will have realised, Barely Regal's own Isaac Jones took to the stage along (with work colleague and violinist Craig) to lend percussion and strings to a few choice tracks. I on the other hand continued to consume free alcohol, whilst trying to look useful. Having only heard snippets of Al's songs before, mostly through his bedroom door (I live with him to clarify, I'm not weird), it was excellent to finally hear the full tracks. I was worried by the end of the night we’d maybe left some of the crowd a little too relaxed, looking they might just curl up on the various beanbags and sofas and hibernate till the next No Sweat gig. Wish we could’ve done exactly that, but sadly we were both back to our day jobs the folowing morning, and back to daydreaming about one day doing this as our actual job. Considering the bill came together at the last minute, it turned out be a really great night. A huge thanks to everyone who took time away from watching the world cup long enough to come down and watch/play/buy a copy of the compilation. Thanks especially to the fantastic Gemma White for letting us curate the night, and hard-selling the compilation at our merch table…thanks to Gem we can probably afford to eat this week. Luckily, we only had to wait  till Friday for more gig-based excitement in the form of Kutosis' EP launch, but I think that night is deserving of its own post.