Great gig – Ainslie Wills at the Toff

Ainslie Wills

Saw a great gig last Thursday, Ainslie Wills at the Toff, and thought I’d tell you about it. So here goes.

Ainslie Wills is awesome. She always has been, and she’s only getting better. Her new material is more accessible, more groovy, while still maintaining her classic style. And of course her old stuff has always been great, an alt-pop-jazz exploration of what can happen when someone with a musical imagination is allowed free reign on instruments and sensibilities usually reserved for mainstream music.

Her band is phenomenal – tight, warm and classy, with a hint of electronica thrown across a melange of acoustic virtuosity.

I hope they get very big indeed.

Now to the supports.

Richard In Your Mind

These guys are fantastic. Whole buncha sitar, psychedelic grooves, and trippy vocal duets. They’ve won the award for lets-get-crazy. Lead singer is a little guy with a big vibe, wispy beard and professor glasses. Standing next to a big hippy bassplayer with dreads. Crazy short-haired depeche-mode look-alike plays the harmonium. Dyed-in-the-wool 70s long-haired muppety guitar player. Gyrating lolling grinning tub-thumper pumps out hypnotic trippy grooves.

In a word – that’s entertainment.

Jamal

Jamal was fun. Trippy electronic grooves, solo carni-style doof-dancing, lush instrumentation and great swathes of intriguing live computer-triggered tones. I dig where he’s coming from.