OOTB 358 – 1 Sep 2009

After the hoopla of the Festival Fringe this was a somewhat shambolic but fun OOTB evening. The decision was made not to set up the PA due to lack of numbers at start up, so the acts would have to be good at projecting their voices across the space.

Compere Freeloadin’ Frank ensured the show went on and played three brand new songs which, unfortunately, I missed as I was too late. I also missed Zee Zee, who apparently played a Greek instrument, and Stephen Harrison, who I found on MySpace was part of the Edinburgh art college scene which spawned the legendary Josef K in the 1980s.

Nyk Stoddart played some new material alongside ‘Kitten In A Bong’ and ‘Another Song’. James Igoe was asked to perform and he obliged playing ‘Humanist Wedding’, ‘Cowboy Song 2’ and ‘Braveheart Beggar’. By this point the audience has almost doubled in size, and Yogi played some new material from his new CD, including ‘Slow Down’. Broken Tooth played a mixture of familiar and less familiar material, with ‘Hearts and Spades’ being the standout.

After the break, and a sudden influx of young and curious audience members, Nyk Stoddart played ‘Tombstoning’ and ‘… Zombies …’. The audience members left as we’d run out of fresh performers so a short pass-the-guitar session ensued which was fun but not particularly interesting for the casual punter. After fifteen minutes or so, the bartender called it a night and that was that.

James Igoe