scout niblett, florence & THE machine and devastations

The guitarist screwed howls and shrieks out of his guitar like something in those pedals was being nailed to wood. The soundman got it just right (bastard loud) which helped, but it was the three of them who made it compelling. They sounded like a cross between Low and Black Sabbath. And that can only be a good thing. From brooding Australians to chipper Home Counties. Florence and the Machine is a singer and a ukulele player / guitarist. That’s right, ukulele. She skipped and pirouetted around the stage, he hulked in the background. And it worked. Spare to the point of being naked, the songs are there to showcase the singer’s beautiful, expressive, if somewhat overwrought voice. Fine if you like theatrics, but a bit much for me. But used to preening and scowling, the oh-so-well-turned-out crowd were caught off guard by her charms. She burbled along to the crowd, sang with joy, drummed like Meg White’s idiot sister and generally had a smashing time. We couldn’t resist. Which led to Scout Niblett. To be fair she was ill and self-medicating with red wine and Lemsip, but tonight she never quite got going. There are three parts to Scout Niblett - countryish laments, slow angsty twanging and furious guitar hell – and tonight she was best on the first and last. At its best, the slow stuff had the same grace and melancholy as conjoured by those master miserablists Will Oldham and Bill Callahan. But there was a lot of room to fill and a lot of stage to stand on and in the middle of the set it all ran right out of steam. Too much keening, too much plodding on the guitar. Even she didn’t seem convinced by it tonight. The crowd started to fidget. The crazy dancing woman in front of me ran out of steam, defeated. But all was not lost. She was joined by a drummer (who got it just right – hats off to him) and she reached for the magic screaming death pedal. Something to listen to! Right at the end she even played some great, hooky songs. Crazy dancing woman came back to life and we all went home, if not bowled over, at least happy with a line up of rare originality and invention.