It’s funny, during the recent rise and rise of Sparrow & the Workshop I have started to wonder slightly, why them?  That’s not supposed to be a criticism of the band, because I think they’re brilliant, but there are a lot of good bands around these parts at the moment, and Sparrow’s current upward trajectory is probably the steepest.  Consequently, I had begun to wonder what it was about them in particular which seemed to capture the imagination of pretty much everyone.

Well on Friday I got my answer.  The circumstances were not the easiest, exactly: Sneaky Pete’s was like a bloody sauna, and recent sound complaints meant that the band had to make a few last minute adjustments and rearrange their set quite considerably.

Having been preceded by Randan Discotheque, a band who have never really captured my imagination I must confess, Sparrow & the Worlshop opened with a new song which was frankly bloody gorgeous.  A lot of bands seem to be able to generate an intial flurry of good material, but I always find it telling when they start writing after that initial burst, because a lot can’t manage it.  A band whose new material is consistently this good are clearly onto something.

The more acoustic setup – with three acoustic guitars, a single snare drum and cymbal, and a stomp-box instead of a bass drum – worked really well.  They even managed to add to their percussion by taping a tiny mic to Nick’s guitar and asking him to flick the end of it to fill out the higher end, which took some spotting, but was a really nice piece of improvisation.

In terms of the music, I think I even preferred some of the songs played this way.  Nick is clearly chanelling the spirit of the late Johnny Cash at the moment, and the sound he is making with his guitar is amazing.  With the quieter set the vocals could become a little less combative, allowing Jill’s voice to lose some of its fierceness and simply be lovely for an evening.  When all three were playing guitar there was a rich, confidently quiet aura to the performance which was really quite special.

I’ve seen Sparrow play with aggression in the past, and it’s a great sight to see.  This time, however, they were playing to a very appreciative crowd, and one they know quite well, and the more relaxed, low key approach this engendered brought a warm, generous spirit to the set and made this month’s This is Music one of the best gigs I have been to all year.  Truly brilliant.

Sparrow & the Workshop – The Gun

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