The 60 or so people who turned up to the 1 in 12 Club, Bradford, on a wet and windy Friday 13th (Feb) didn't leave disappointed. If only more people were there to witness one of the best shows I've seen in Bradford for ages (we're biassed. we were involved in the gig). We were too slack to take any photos of the night so we have borrowed some from a google search and the Budvar may have tainted our memory but here is our recollection of the night:
Garfunkel & Simon are not a 2 piece song writing partnership from Brooklyn. In fact Garfunkel & Simon is just Patrick from Bradford's Monty Casino with an acoustic guitar and a gob full of young wit. He took to the stage early in front of an early crowd who remained silent through out his accute set. Patrick takes lead from anti folksters such as Jeff Lewis but with a Yorkshire accent. The subject matter behind his musings are that of Bradford City, David Cameron and library fines. Patrick ends his set with a song he claims to have written with pal Bruce Sprinsteen titled Born in the B.R.I. Garfunkel & Simon is/are a welcome addition to Bradford's music scene.
NOPE
Nope blasted out a 1 song set that lasted no longer than 15 minutes. They are a bit of a super group who include members of That Fucking Tank & Mucky Sailor. No lyrics just 100% prog. We cant think of owt else to say about these apart from they were awesome and they could do with writing another 15 minute song.
This is the band that we were looking forward to the most. Phantom are a 2 piece dark party machine from London. The band are late on stage but then finally pulsating drums and synth triggers explode before a distant voice echoes around the room which is coming from the sound booth. Suddenly, like a bat out of hell as Meatloaf would say, singer Tic darts through the crowd from the sound booth and leaps on to the stage. Dancing like they do in London. Yelping like a mad dog. Swapping between baritone and bass. The 2 piece power through a set with vivacity with the help of triggers and synth like we haven't heard before. Phantom's sound is fucked up but we heard a lot of soul, 80's pop and funk, which seems to be the trend in the capital at the moment (see The XX, Jack Penate, Golden Silvers etc), but a lot more progy. Every song sounded like a winner to us but check out Risks on their myspace page. 
Things are running late by the time Brontide get on stage but this did not spoil the vibe of the evening. Brontide, which is a new project for William from I Was A Cub Scout, played mathy, progressive, instrumental, riffy, melodic, rhytmic tunes very loudly. Their sound is reminiscent to Don Caballero and Battles. They didn't converse inbetween numbers choosing to just bash out the set without coming up for air. Our favourite tune was Crunk Annansie with its delicate and repetitive guitar intro followed by syncopated bass and washed down with Heavy as fuck riffing. Tight!
