Playlouder - Music is the Network

The unusual but hardly unlikely support act for British Sea Power this evening is none other than the London Bulgarian Choir – and I hope I’ve got that right because their spokesperson complains of being misidentified as both Mongolian and Belgian in the past week.

The Roundhouse is a good venue to soak up choral performances like this, what with the acoustics being great and the audience largely respectful and hushed.

Their songs no doubt lose something in the translation: a joke involving an old man dancing with some young women (who turn out to be seventy) raises nods rather than laughter from the audience. Translating a joke is the same as explaining it, which isn’t where lies the humour; it is nice, however, to be told these snippets of information before the choir breaks into song again, giving the imagination a little spark.

The set includes a few great solo performances but is largely an ensemble affair with two groups of females making up the greater part of the troupe (and the melodies of the songs as well) and a smaller group of men, including a drummer of Indian origin, providing bass, baritone, beat, and all that jazz.

It’s an odd mixture of influences which seems to me to have as much in common with north African song as European. Whether or not that’s a misdiagnosis, I know I can thoroughly recommend them.

The Roundhouse is a great venue too: good selection of drinks and the vegetarian sausage rolls are the best I’ve yet had in London.
 
A shame then that even in a venue this great your gig can be near enough ruined by being stuck behind a bunch of loud, tall, drunk individuals who insist on singing along to the instrumental parts of every song and stepping on your feet at every opportunity.

Oh well, for the moments their number diminished with bar-visits, British Sea Power still managed to impress, as did the London Bulgarian Choir, who joined them from behind a curtain for a few ghostly intervals.