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Review: Sofar Sounds, Bristol Old Vic – ‘A spectacular coup’
Sofar Sounds, once an idea in someone’s living room, is now well established in Bristol and cities all over the world.
Their concerts – secret artists, secret location, full attention – have taken place all over the city but tonight’s setting is a spectacular coup: the Theatre Royal at Bristol Old Vic.
Sofar Bristol have been working with the Old Vic for nearly four years, staging their carefully breadcrumbed concerts initially in the venue’s Weston Studio and later in the foyer.
Compere for the night is Molly Davies, who also write and performs music as MLY – photo: Molly Davies
The Valentine’s event is their first in the main theatre and hosted by producer Molly Davies whose palpable enthusiasm could power the night alone.
Tonight’s three acts, then, grace the stage where Peter O’Toole played Hamlet, Judi Dench played Juliet and Flanders & Swann performed that song about mud.
Eden Hunter is an alumni of the BRIT School for performing arts in Croydon – photo: Molly Davies
The first performer tonight has a thing for the smell of the greasepaint and the roar of the crowd.
Singer-songwriter Eden Hunter seems pleased as punch to play the Old Vic, telling the audience she is “an absolute theatre kid through and through”, though she bemoans dry ice “fucking drying your vocals out”.
A BRIT school graduate from Surrey, Hunter released her first single back in 2021. In the studio, she makes widescreen pop – her work includes a single with the stars of Drag Race – but tonight her “theatrical anthems” (her words) are pared down to piano arrangements.
Hunter released her first EP on Friday, March 13 – photo: Dot McCormack
She has the voice, and the songs, to carry it off with ease. Showgirl, her defiant latest single, just fizzes with one great line after another (and it was written before the Taylor Swift album was announced, fact fans).
Freaky Little Freak is another winner in the set – she writes so brilliantly about the grotty extremes of romance – and the presence of a cover of Lady Gaga’s Million Reasons is a pity only in that it denies us one more Eden Hunter melodrama.
Roll up, roll up for her first EP The Circus Man, released on Friday, March 13.
Second came a performer whose songs speak to the Irish experience across generations – photo: Dot McCormack
Next is Ciarán Moran, a Dublin singer-songwriter who uses music to make sense of the paradoxes of his hometown.
Moran has cemented himself in the Irish music scene over the last few years, playing sold-out headline shows and attracting praise from old hands like Christy Moore and Finbar Furey.
He doesn’t share some of the weather-beaten folk stylings of those forebears but his songs, performed acoustically tonight, speak to the modern Irish experience in documentarian detail.
Even before he begins opener Raised a Different Way, Moran warns the audience that his set isn’t particularly uplifting.
Dublin’s Ciaran Moran is an intense performer – photo: Dot McCormack
That song, from his recent EP Love in the Gutter, seems to deal with generational trauma (“Now the kids are at playdates or watching shows like the Rugrats / Yet their da’s first playdate was alone, without a soul, cleaning the bloodstains off a footpath”), while Mother, his first single back in 2018, concerns domestic violence.
It’s difficult to look away from Moran as he sings about these subjects. He is a truly intense performer, shuddering, shaking his head, even tipping his toes as he details the hurt.
If there’s something self-conscious about all of this, it is countered by Moran’s skill as a melodist: Give Up Your Love, a nimble pop gem with a winning chorus, is a high spot of the set perhaps because it allows the performer, and the Old Vic audience, genuine catharsis.
The night’s headliners are indie new-wave act Yesterday’s Girl – photo: Dot McCormack
The last act of the night receives a grand introduction from Molly; she compares their music to finding “a niche vinyl collection in the attic with all the best unreleased songs from the ‘80s in it”.
Yesterday’s Girl do not disappoint. The Bristol five-piece (Emma, Callan, Owen, Felix and Matt) describe themselves as “indie new wave” and their songs, playful and cinematic, are stuffed with synth trills and troubled funk.
We’ve had a lot of Meccano post-punk in this city and it was about time someone added a splash of colour!
The band is fronted by the effervescent Emma Shippen – photo: Dot McCormack
Frontwoman Emma is a joy to watch; she bounds across the stage and owns every moment.
The sophisti-pop precision on display in songs like I Just Wanna Find and To Carry to Hold reminds me of Prefab Sprout in their pomp (keyboardist Felix in the Thomas Dolby role), and perhaps Aimee Mann’s band ‘Til Tuesday.
Yesterday’s Girl have supported the Sophs and played Dot to Dot fest, but they still feel like a brilliant secret as they close this Sofar gig in the Old Vic.
Look out for more special Sofar Bristol dates in the months to come – photo: Dot McCormack
It doesn’t take long for everyone to get up and dance to standout Moving Bodies and ferocious encore Validate. Their studio material is still to come; it’ll be a treat when it does.
Let’s hope Sofar return to the Old Vic as soon as possible, though it wouldn’t be such a secret next time. For now, take a bow!
Main image: Dot McCormack
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