Review: Gruff Rhys at Woodlands Church

Gruff Rhys has played Bristol in many guises recently – delivering his witty solo material at an in-store gig at Rise music, with his band Neon Neon at a theatre/arts show at Motion club and showcasing his brilliant American Interior concept album at At Bristol science centre. And it is with that album that he returns to a little known (outside of the religious fraternity) venue in Bristol – Woodlands Church.

The church has undergone a big revamp recently and now looks more like an arts centre than a place of worship, but proves an excellent space for this concert. Still buzzing from Gruff’s astounding set at End of the Road Festival a couple of weeks back, this gig has the potential to be a bit repetitive and uninspiring – but that simply isn’t the case, and that’s testament to Gruff’s delivery of such an excellent story (some of which is rooted in historical fact, but mostly in this Welshman’s fiction).

The evening is centred around the tale of John Evans, a 20-year-old Welsh farm hand who downs tools and heads across the Atlantic to America to search for the legendary (and as he later finds out, mythical) Madoc – a Welsh explorer who supposedly established Welsh colonies in the Americas, discovering it way before Columbus did.

The night is launched with a credible historical video providing some invaluable background to the evening’s tales and songs. The Super Furry Animals frontman, wearing a brilliant wolf hat, launches the musical proceedings with ‘Year of the Dog’. He then attempts to play ‘The Court of King Arthur’ but due to some tuning issues, scraps that idea with an endearing: “I’ll play another, I’ve got plenty of songs…” cue ‘American Interior’. The songs sound familiar and warm, but you can’t help thinking Gruff’s vocals could be much more powerful.

But we don’t have to wait long to see Gruff truly shine – by the time he plays the popular and poppy ‘Shark Ridden Waters’, we’re totally with him. Performed by the likes of Rihanna or Kylie and this could be a top 10 pop hit and paves the way perfectly for his Power Ballad – ‘Walk Into The Wilderness’, before he brings it back home with the Super Furry Animals-esque ‘(If We Were Words) We Would Rhyme’.

There’s some impressive looping action during ‘The Last Conquistador’, which is the perfect mix of storytelling lyrics and easily digestable indie sounds. Later on the metronome breaks…thrice, but no-one lets this ruin the show and the more rhythmic among the crowd become a collective human metronome, clapping the beat for Gruff to work from. Genius.

We’re introduced to a number of characters on the big screen this evening, including Iola – who looks like Blackadder-era Rowan Atkinson with a golden mullet. The song, ‘Iola’, is introduced with the caveat that we’ve probably never heard that name before but will be ‘familiarised’ with it by the end of the set. Yup. We sure are. Just one of Gruff’s wonderfully repetitive songs, along with ‘Gyrru Gyrru Gyrru’ (which means driving).

There’s a strong Welsh contingent here tonight, several of whom chose to heckle in Gruff’s native Welsh tongue – most people have no idea what they’re saying but that’s OK. Gruff is known for holding up signs guiding the audience, signs which read ‘applause’, ‘louder’ and ‘ape sh*t!’ and while he doesn’t necessarily need these tonight, they do make an appearance at the end of the ‘Sensations in the Dark’, ‘Candylion’ and ‘Honey All Over’ encore. The end of the night culminates in a semi-standing ovation and a lot of happy punters, many of whom snaffled up some of the awesome merch – including a great tee with Gruff in his wolf-style hat on.

Picture by Tim Ellis