Variety is the spice of New Year life with series of free gigs across capital
First Footin’
Various venues, Edinburgh JJJ
Very well attended judging by the smattering of acts
I saw, First Footin' on 1 January initially (and perhaps inevitably) had the air of the morning after the night before, with audiences drifting quietly but attentively between the various free gigs spread around the city. Not that Glasgow-based rapper Bemz is a man to go through the motions – he commanded the stage of the Music Hall in the Assembly Rooms with his bristling, intelligent lyrics, reflecting the alienation he experienced being transplanted from London to Ayrshire as child on the punchy Black Kid White City. He was in contemplative mode with the reflective 26 but the tracks Raging Bull and Zidane were undeniable club bangers.
Appearing without her usual band at the same venue, Becky Sikasa jokingly admitted that her pianobased songs tend to the “depressive”, but she's a plaintively soulful artist with a honeyed vocal, her opening, a cappella track Lullaby creeping up with its understated message of defiance. Win was similarly delivered from the back foot, but it has a simple grace.
Meanwhile at The Huxley – a busy pub with standing room only – Irish singersongwriter and pianist Anna Leyden fought for her soft, ethereal tones to be heard. Accompanied by fiddler Charlie Stewart, theirs was a charming, mid-paced, melodic sound. That said, I Don't Like You contained a fierce steeliness.
Moving smoothly between jazz and R&B, Grace & The Flat Boys are a relaxed fivepiece who most captivate when they slide into funk, and when singer Grace Dempsey relinquishes some of the poised control that characterises her winsome vocal. They were clearly enjoying themselves at Eve @ Virgin Hotel and transmitted that to the crowd. Solitude was a gorgeous, shuffling number, with the clattering locomotive of Take 3 a hipswaying contrast.