Lack of beer does funny things to your mind. You sit there watching the television and you begin to think about life in general. Or maybe you watch some reality television and you begin to think about death in general. Spurned on by the fact that there was nothing on the telly, Bluesbunny decided that a Free Candy Session might well improve the whole quality of life thing. Even if there was no beer involved ( and dammit, a sober bunny is not a happy bunny). After grumping into the Liquid Ship, a quick look at the poster on the wall indicated that attempting to bring good cheer to the world tonight would be Magic Box Mistress, Debrus, The Garden party and Ben Sturrock.
First to bring light into the room is Magic Box Mistress. The place is hotter than hell tonight with a full complement of punters to challenge the air conditioning. Undeterred by the heat, she takes to the stage and rattles through "Stalker Boy" and "Bones" to the obvious approval of the audience and showing the kind of charm that makes you feel like a big cat that is getting its tummy tickled. Just to prove that she can, she even manages to induce the audience to clap along. The lady has spirit and indeed it is the first time that Bluesbunny has seen the first act of the night succeed at this. Turning back to the music, tonight we also get to hear a new song called "Ticking and Tocking" that comes across just fine. It has been awhile since Bluesbunny last caught Magic Box Mistress live and hopefully it won't be as long before we meet her again.
Attempting to mellow things a bit are the second act of the evening, Debrus. Apparently, this is a revival thing for them as they have not really played together for something like twenty years. Fortunately, Bluesbunny was drunk and in the gutter then so can reasonably claim not to remember them. To enlighten you, however, there are three good gentlemen on stage tonight who do a nice line in neatly harmonised, seventies' style country rock. The one called Jules had a distinctly desirable Rickenbacker guitar to go with his vocal talents. Given the gaps in the Bluesbunny long term memory, we assume that these are new songs so we noted that "In Vein" was eminently hummable and that "My Life" impressed us the most. Besides a strange feeling that they were actually schoolteachers, they seem to be making a pretty decent return to the music scene.
In much the same musical vein, The Garden Party takes to the stage. Two in number, they are pushing a new album called Postcards. Unfortunately, they encounter the curse of stage left at the 'Ship and one of their guitars decides to take the evening off. Unperturbed, Davie and Paul settle into the easy groove that best describes their sound. "My Perfect Day", for example, could easily have fallen off an old Blue Nile or Del Amitri album. The big guy's vocals were right on the money and this would certainly be classed as a polished performance despite the technical problems. It would be interesting to hear them as a full band as their closing song, "Last Train", had the potential to rattle the rafters.
Last on tonight, Ben Sturrock carries the baton to the finishing line. Now, our Mr Sturrock has been making a bit of a name for himself locally and it is not difficult to see why. He looks like he belongs on stage and gets a noisy reception from the audience. His songs are commercial and have that warm, feel good appeal. "Only In My Dreams" is a rather fine song but faster material such as the uplifting "Thursday's Child" worked best in the live environment of the Liquid Ship. There is certainly an enthusiastic crowd tonight as an impromptu singalong keeps him company on "I'm Sorry". It is indeed hard not to like Ben Sturrock.
Another Friday, another Free Candy Session and its getting late. Feeling much better than when he arrived, Bluesbunny heads off in search of chicken pakora. Sobriety gives a man an appetite.